The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

Edith Joann VanBelle, 85, of Spanaway, Wash., passed away Feb. 25, 2023.

She was born June 22, 1937, in Percival, Fremont County, Iowa to William Burton "Burt" and Edith Fern (Foster) Taylor.

Joann was the sixth of eight children born to Burt and Fern.

In February 1949, she moved with her family to Sweet Home from Thayer, Iowa. She attended Sweet Home High School with the class of 1955. She moved to Idaho in 1955, where she met and married Ronald Lewis Laird Sr. They had three children.

She was a very talented and special person. She was an artist, sculptor, seamstress, cook, horse trainer, and author, to name a few of the things she has done.

Joann is survived by her daughters, Cindy Bailey, and Lauri; daughter-in-law Krista (Boyer); six grandchildren; brothers Robert "Bob" Lee (Edaleen), John Loman (Jimalee); and sisters Betty Beatrice Gourley, Ruby June Womack and Linda Cora Swimley (Keith).

She was preceded in death by her husbands, Theodore Lee Walters in 2008, Ronald in 2018, and John VanBelle in 2018; son Ronald "Ronny" Lewis Jr. in 2001; parents Burt in 1969 and Fern in 2009; brother Albert in 2009; and sister Dorothy Brockway in 2011.

Viewing will be at noon Friday, March 17, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweet Home. The funeral will follow at 1 pm. Final burial will take place at Gilliland Cemetery in Sweet Home.

Sweet Home Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements.