Joan Budden

Joan Elsie (Walno) Budden, age 92, passed away Saturday, November 6, 2021.

She was born in 1928 to Emma Frances Willard (Parrack) and Ira Frank Walno near Wakefield, Kansas.

She had two older sisters, Betty and Jean, and was two years almost to the day older than her brother Wylie. Joan had significant challenges in her first few years of life. First, when Joan was only a few months old, a tornado swept through the middle of her family home one night, destroying everything. A mattress thrown over them, her and her mother were saved from a falling chimney. The family began rebuilding just as the Great Depression and the onset of the Dust Bowl in Kansas. When Joan was two years old, she broke her hip. With the impending birth of her brother, she stayed with her grandparents who cared for her while her hip healed. She always shared fond memories of her grandfathers’ love for her as they helped her recover. Joan and her siblings went to Madison Creek School where their Aunt Else taught. She often talked about riding Beauty to school with Wylie. Joan attended Wakefield High School. During high school to save resources amid the scarcities of WWII the cost of commuting was high, so she and several other girls stayed together in a boarding house. She enjoyed this time living with her sisters and friends as they shared many adventures.

She graduated from Wakefield High in 1946.

The boarding house was across the street from the Budden home where she kept an eye on Don Budden. Her interest in Don was put on hold when he joined the Navy and went off to war in the Pacific fleet. After Joan graduated from high school, she worked locally as a telephone operator and later moved to Manhattan and worked at a local department store. When Don returned, they began dating and were married within a year on January 16, 1947, in the United Methodist parsonage in Manhattan, KS. Seven children were born to their union: Don, Brenda, Chris, Craig, Scot, Lyna, and Libby. Don and Joan continued to live in Wakefield until the early 1950’s when they moved to Concordia so Don could partner in the Mobil station with his brother-in-law Wayne Machmer. It was while they lived in Concordia that two significant events occurred that would have a life-long impact on Joan. First, her work as an aid in the hospital got her a reference to care for Helen Carlgren. While caring for Helen she got to know Wilson Carlgren, owner of the local furniture store. When Wilson’s mom died, he hired Joan as a designer. This led to Joan’s lifelong career as an interior designer. The second significant event was her divorce from Don who she always said was the love of her life. Soon after their divorce Joan and the five youngest children moved to Kearney, NE. It was a challenging time to be a single mother when women still had difficulty even having a checking account in their own name, much less financing a home, but Joan found a way. She was creative and resourceful, which she attributed to family lessons learned during the Great Depression. Throughout her career she moved with her children to several different communities and homes until they all left the nest.

Upon becoming an empty nester Joan decided to move back to Kearney, NE where she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Kearney State College on May 13, 1983. She then tried her hand at owning her own business, Le Décor. In addition to her years in Kansas and Nebraska, she lived many years in Ft. Collins and Loveland, Colorado, and in Phoenix, near Scottsdale, and in Sun City West. There were many things Joan learned while growing up as a farm girl near a small town. She loved to grow things, so she usually had a garden, potted plants, fruit trees, and once even a grape vine. She was so grateful for the bountiful returns, even if it took a lot of work. Having raised cattle she knew what it was to have fresh milk and cream, which was why she always loved to make a batch of homemade ice cream often using her own fresh fruits. This was a reminder of family and home for her, so she was always sharing the experience with children and grandchildren. Joan was a good seamstress making everything from clothes to curtains. She could remake some of the most worn-out furniture or houses into great works of beauty, which is why she liked to go antiquing and to sales. She loved all kinds of artwork and art shows. She had a desire to stay up to date with things, learning new techniques for cooking, design, gardening, or anything in which she was interested. Later in life, it became a great frustration for her that she couldn’t learn new things or even manage things on her own. The best expression of her love was through her created works including: ceramics, drawing, drafting, painting, print making, weavings, etc. This was evident by how many drawings and paintings she did of her family over the years and how often she offered to share her creations.

Joan was a member of the Lutheran Church for almost 75 years, having been baptized and raised in a United Methodist Church. She most recently attended the Silverdale Lutheran Church with her son, Don. She was an active member of their quilting circle and assisted with Wednesday meals for the community.

She was preceded in death by her parents, siblings, two children (Craig C. Budden and Brenda Almeda Wilson), granddaughter Ciara Elizabeth Raschdorf, and great grandson Matthew Louis Oberdorf.

She is survived by her children Donald Budden of Silverdale, WA; Chris (Nancy) Budden of Aurora, CO; Scot (Rhonda) Budden of Glendale, AZ; Lyna Levine of Virginia Beach, VA; and Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Oberdorf of Salina, KS; twenty-seven grandchildren, as well as dozens great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren. She was always proud to let people know she had over one hundred grandchildren all together. Besides her family, Joan leaves behind many lifelong friends: Dixie Braden, Barb Copeland, and Joan (Wiese) Caldwell, as well as her soul friend Lila Turnbull and many others whose lives she has touched over the years.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, November 13, 2021 at the Wakefield United Methodist Church. The family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. until service time. Interment will follow in the Highland Cemetery.

Joan’s family requests memorials be sent to YWAM-Youth With A Mission, PO Box 22185, Louisville, KY 40252 with a note it is a memorial for Joan Budden (Marin Rashdorf’s grandmother) or to Anderes-Pfeifley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 176, Riley, KS 66531. Please do not put Marin’s name on the check or it cannot be accepted.