December 17, 1924 – August 4, 2020

Joyce E. Blake née Howe, 95, passed away quietly at her care home in Edmonds, WA on August 4, 2020.

Joyce was the oldest of nine children born to Otto and Leona (Shields) Howe of Hettinger, ND in December of 1924 in a sod and rock house just west of Golden Butte on the Bucyrus Rd. Her dad soon bought a better property about three miles west and moved the family there where the current family farm still exists. Being the oldest daughter of a large farm family, she was tasked with many of the chores of raising her siblings.

After graduating from Hettinger High School in 1942, Joyce and two of her girlfriends boarded a train for Seattle where Boeing was hiring for the war effort. Her good looks and personality landed her a job as not only one of three receptionists for the engineering department at Boeing (all of 200 engineers at that time), but also many modeling roles at Boeing, including being in the iconic photos of the fake city built on top of Plant II to disguise it from enemy bombers. While working the reception desk, she spotted a handsome young drafter in a group of new employees. She told her fellow receptionists, “that’s the man I’m going to marry.” Sure enough, after the war in 1947 she married that man, Robert Blake. He used his GI benefits to get his mechanical engineering degree at the UW while working at Boeing. They then moved to Zenith, WA where they eventually bought a home in the Danish community called The Seashore Club where they spent 50 years raising their family.

Joyce spent many years volunteering at the retirement homes in the neighborhood (Judson Park and the Masonic Home) and was a fixture at the Zenith election board for decades. She was also a member of the Seattle Opera Guild, The Seattle Button Club, and numerous bridge clubs.

She is survived by her two children, Ann and Bennet Blake; two grandchildren, Jordan and Kelline Blake; sister, Kay McCarthy; and brothers, Arlo, Norm, and Dorwin Howe.

Joyce was preceded in death by her husband Robert Blake in 2006, her infant brother Alfred Howe, her sister Maxine Tait, and her brothers, Donald and Lynn Howe.