JoAnn & Dave Plant

JoAnn Plant passed away suddenly on May 14, 2014 in Gresham, Oregon. Born on February 24, 1941, to Joseph A. Danton and Grace May (Armstrong) Danton in Corvallis, JoAnn spent most of her early years in Albany. She graduated from Albany Union High School in 1959. She played clarinet in the AUHS band. She was very active in Girl Scouts, attending a National Jamboree in Colorado Springs in 1958. As the eldest of six children, she gained plenty of experience in child-care, cooking, and house cleaning. During summers, she worked picking beans, or processing them at the Stayton cannery.

She enrolled at Oregon State College in 1959, majoring in chemistry after resisting being steered into home economics. She continued to play clarinet, now in the OSC band. She met David Plant in her freshman chemistry class lab, and they were married March 19, 1961, during spring break. JoAnn began working full-time as a lab technician in the Horticulture Department, but continued taking as many courses as she could. By the end of 1961 her duties included being a mother to a son, Darrel. JoAnn and David’s son, Jonathan, was born in 1964. In 1966, the family moved to Eugene,  where JoAnn found a job as a technician in the Chemistry Department at the University of Oregon. Two years later, she began working in the Quality Control Lab at Borden Chemical Company in Springfield. Continuing her coursework, she completed her B.S. degree at the University of Oregon in 1970. She worked at Borden Chemical until her retirement in late 2000.

JoAnn and David acquired acreage south of Gresham from his parents in 1982. In 1993, while they were both still working full-time, they began construction of JoAnn’s “dream home.” She commuted to Gresham from Eugene almost every weekend for the next seven years to help build the house. She talked so much about her construction work that co-workers at Borden gave her a compound miter saw as a retirement gift. JoAnn did all the tiling in the home and finished all the woodwork. She laid and finished a hardwood floor all by herself. JoAnn and David have lived in their Gresham home since she retired. 

Throughout her life, JoAnn demonstrated a variety of skills. No one in the extended family ever graduated from high school without getting a hand-made afghan. She was certified in a Japanese style of embroidery called “Bunka,” sometimes known as “painting with silk.” She knitted, crocheted, did complicated cross-stitch pictures, and even learned to tat. Since retiring she concentrated on quilting. She had her own “quilt room” in her home, and spent many hours there. She was a member of a group called Comforting Quilts, which met monthly to assemble quilts to be donated to charities. Just prior to her death, she exhibited four quilts at the annual Northwest Quilters show. JoAnn and David traveled extensively in later years, visiting Mexico and Hawaii often. They saw Britain, Australia, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Fiji, and the Cook Islands. They also helped remodel the homes of friends and relatives, “working for food,” as JoAnn liked to say.

JoAnn loved children, especially her two grandchildren, 6-year-old Tess and 4-year-old Luke. On the Saturday preceding her death, she presented a very special quilt to Luke at his fourth birthday party. She spent a happy last Mother’s Day with her sons and their families. JoAnn is survived by David, her husband of more than 53 years; her son Jonathan, his wife Kara, and their children, Tess and Luke; her son Darrel and his wife Barbara; brothers Joseph Danton, Jr. and Albert Danton; sisters Judy Hiddleson, Janelle Danton, and Janet Bedle; and numerous nephews and nieces.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to support JoAnn’s quilting group. Checks should be made out to “Comforting Quilts-Northwest Quilters,” and sent to Northwest Quilters, c/o Carol Brown,  8616 SW 57th Avenue, Portland OR 97219.

A Memorial service is scheduled for Leach Botanical Garden at 6704 SE 122nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon (just south of Foster Road), beginning at 10 AM on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. 

Inurnment arrangements were made by Crown Memorial, www.anewtradition.com.