Joyce Burghardt was born to Charles Henry and Helen Marion Foote of Queen Anne Hill on Jan 22, 1922. She would, upon reflection, describe her childhood as magical. Music, church, the Camp Fire Girls, and school activities enriched her world. She was particularly proud of her perfect attendance record at school. Her singular childhood regret was the Episcopal priest catching her eating the puffy donut on the church steps bought with a nickel intended for the collection plate.

Joyce and her future husband Galen were childhood neighbors on Queen Anne. She was in the first grade and he in the eighth. Their paths would cross again while Joyce was a sophomore at the University of Washington. Galen was running the family-owned Pierce Power and Light Company in Idaho and decided to visit the Foote family on Queen Anne. As Joyce recounts, "Well…in walks this gorgeous man!" They married a year later in 1941.

Joyce joined Galen in Pierce and began assisting by managing the company books. Sons Galen Jr. and Richard (Dick) were born during this time. As WWII raged, Joyce was judicious with her wartime flour and sugar rations, and oft-repeated her mother-in-law's indelible compliment, "You have a way with leftovers." Letters from her father in Seattle, anxious to see his grandsons, detailed time, distance, and gas calculations to make the trip, and how long it would take to accumulate the required gas rations. Times were tough.

Before too long, unable to compete with FDR's public power program, Joyce and Galen sold Pierce Power and Light to the Washington Water Works and returned to Seattle. On a subsequent weekend trip to Orcas Island in the Spring of 1949, they pulled their Buick Roadmaster Sedan into Roger Perdue's Eastsound 76 station for a tire repair. As the story goes, the Idaho plates caught the eye of a local realtor who quickly offered to show them Crescent Beach Cottages, a beach resort for sale just over the hill. Joyce, pregnant with their third child (Patty), recollects sitting on a beach log, and knowing immediately, this is where she belonged. So, they bought it.

By July 4 ^th of that year, Joyce and Galen were owner/operators of Crescent Beach Cottages. Joyce managed the reservations, cleaned cottages, and organized salmon barbecues on the beach for the guests. Galen took care of all the maintenance, hauled water to the resort, skippered the Kilowatt II on fishing charters, and shuttled the Episcopal Vicar to the outer islands in service of his ministry.

Daughter Patty's birth in the fall of 1949 was followed by one of the 20 ^th century's worst blizzards with record snow, 60+ mile an hour winds, and a deep freeze so cold Patty's diapers froze to the floor. But the Burghardts were undeterred. They stayed on, proving their mettle, earning respect and acceptance as true islanders, integrating into the fabric of island life. In the coming years, it was not unusual for local Moran State Park Ranger John O'Dell to stop by as Labor Day drew near, to make sure Joyce and Galen were still speaking at the end of a hectic and stressful summer season. If not, he passed messages between the two. After Labor Day, with the high season behind them, the Burghardt, O'Dell, Gow, Congdon, and McGlinn families would cruise up to the Canadian Gulf Islands for rest, repair, good fishing, and good company.

Joyce was a major force in shaping Orcas. She helped form the women's choral group Orcas Singers who were asked to perform by Jim French in Seattle. She organized a tremendously successful fundraising event in support of the March of Dimes fight against polio. She was active in the Stitch and Bitch, schooled local teens on proper dinner dance etiquette in the Parish Hall, and sewed costumes for Margaret Porter's Dance Recitals. Joyce and Galen helped find and fund the original well for what became the Eastsound Water Users Association. They were founding members of the Orcas Island Medical Center and charter members of the Orcas Island Yacht Club. And Joyce recollected being the designated driver after those wonderful dances at the Deer Harbor Dance Hall on Saturday nights.

In the fall of 1958, nine years after buying Crescent Beach Cottages, Joyce and Galen leased the resort to island neighbors and returned to Seattle to care for Joyce's parents. Joyce taught sewing and worked in sales for the Singer Sewing Company while completing her degree at the University of Washington. Hired as a secretary by the Seattle/King County chapter of the American Red Cross, she quickly rose to Director of Youth Services where she started Youth Leadership summer camps held on the campus of Western Washington University. Taking every Red Cross water and boating safety course offered, she earned her Water Safety Instructor certification. She transitioned to Director of Disaster Services and lead Red Cross recovery efforts on Guam from the devastation of Typhoon Pamela. Galen joined her as a volunteer six months later to drive heavy equipment and help with disaster dinner barbecues on the beach. After leaving the Red Cross, Joyce went on to form a small consulting firm, K2B, to guide local and state agencies in disaster planning and preparedness. She earned recognition from the Director of FEMA for her leadership and development of Emergency and Fire Service Management.

Joyce continuously sought opportunity to build community. As Executive Director of the Puget Sound Girl's Club, she worked to improve the lives of Seattle's Central Area underserved population. She prioritized teen pregnancy prevention, and, drawing on her Red Cross WSI skills, gave swim lessons to inner-city mothers and children. She completed her master's in human resource management with the University of Utah's distance program, served on the Board of residential treatment facility Women in Recovery, served a term as President of the Eastside Soroptimists, and began consulting with Camp Fire Girl Councils on asset management across the country.

Joyce and Galen returned to Orcas in 1981 after Galen retired as a Chief Engineer on sea-going tugs. In preparation for aging in place, they built a new home on the property and put Crescent Beach under the stewardship of the County Land Bank. With Joyce's interest in the benefits of exercising in water, she was asked to teach water aerobics at Rosario. She accepted. She taught water aerobics on the island until the age of ninety-seven. Class members would sing their way to good health with pop hits from the 1950s, had surgeries their doctors never thought possible and comfort each other through the loss of loved ones.

Joyce had a passion for music and theater. She took to the stage for the Orcas Center's musicals back when they were the high point of the summer season. She sang with the Orcas Choral Society under the leadership of Catherine Pedersen, whose interest in Celtic music of Cape Breton led to performances at Carnegie Hall, Ireland, and Scotland. When the decision was made to eliminate the entire local public school music program, Joyce and a few friends founded the Music Advocacy Group (MAG) to support music education for grades K-12. Upon her retirement as MAG founding board member and 20 years of service, MAG created the Joyce Burghardt Excellence in Music Fund in her honor to focus on helping students develop their music skills to the highest level.

Joyce was involved with the Eastsound Planning and Review Committee (EPRC) for 15 years. She was instrumental in the development of Eastsound as a walking village and the acquisition of the village waterfront park. She was a founding member of the Orcas Island Community Foundation and served on the boards of Orcas Center, Long House, Orcas Medical Center, Orcas Family Health, and vestry for Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

In short, she was a force in island life where she loved many and was loved in return. The past two years were spent in assisted living in Anacortes. She was well cared for there, visited by many and written to by many more. Still, not a visit would go by when she didn't say, "I can hardly wait to get back to Orcas and see the children play on Crescent Beach."  Orcas Island was a wonderful home for Joyce, and, in time, her ashes will reside in the stone wall overlooking Eastsound at Emmanuel Episcopal, next to her husband Galen's. In death, as in life, she will know Orcas as her home.

She is survived by sons Galen (Birch) of Evanston and Orcas, Dick of Covington, daughter Patty (Jim) Cook of Eastsound, grandchildren Galen, Sarah, and John, and great-grandchildren Galen, Max, Violet, Brayton, and Henry. Husband Galen preceded her in death on Nov. 5, 2005.

Patricia Joyce Foote Burghardt passed away peacefully on Oct 19, 2021. She was ninety-nine.

The celebration of her life will be on July 16, 2022, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Eastsound. In place of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Joyce Burghardt Excellence in Music Fund, c/o MAG at P.O. Box 1171, Eastsound, WA 98245, or online at Joyce Burghardt Fund – Music Advocacy Group (oimag.org) .