Joe An Harris was born in Hawley, Minnesota on September 5, 1931. The stock market had crashed and her father, Harry Dallum, a butcher by profession, had joined the ranks for the unemployed. Little Joannie was left with her paternal grandparents so that her father and mother, Ruthe (Hall) Dallum could search for work.<\/p>\n
The bond between Joe An and her grandparents ,who had recently immigrated from Norway, and particularly with her gramma, Hannah, modeled the closeness that Joe An had with her own grandchildren, Nicholas, Hunter and Amanda Poole and Austen and Lily Peterson. The scarcities of being raised during the 1930\u2019s and \u201840\u2019s were to establish the core character of Jo Anne: grit, and unerring ability to cut to the quick, personal responsibility, determination, and acceptance of and immediate resolution, and an inability to complain or permit it from others.<\/p>\n
As the economy prospered in the early 1950\u2019s, Joe An\u2019s parents settled in Cutbank, Montana where Joe An graduated from high school and later married Lee Duane Harris. The two raised three children, Lee, Kim, and Melanie. Employed as a roughneck for Mobile Oil, Lee and the family followed the boom to Farmington, New Mexico. During the \u201860\u2019s, Joe An liberated herself from the typical housewife traditions and enrolled in college.<\/p>\n
Fascinated by the ideals during the social upheaval of the Age of Aquarius, Joe An became a lifelong rabid democrat and the believer in the tenants of the Great Society.<\/p>\n
Another move back to Montana, she graduated from college Eastern Montana College and began her 24 year career as an English teacher. Settling in Helena, she worked at Capital High School. Joe An turned her fierce determination to enlightening often reluctant students about the dangers of dangling participles, split infinitives, Shakespeare, parallel sentence structure, and how to write a paragraph. Described as fair and hard by her students, Joe An was proud of her many successes.<\/p>\n
In retirement, Joe An cultivated flowers and landscaped a yard best described as a Better Homes and Garden\u2019s yard. She was as devoted a grandmother as her\u2019s had been to her. Guiding with constant support and understanding, with love tempered by gentle Scandinavian humor, Joe An was seen again at Capital High School as her granddaughters graduated.<\/p>\n
For all of this and because we cannot get the time back to see you, Mom you will be missed. Memorials can be made to Capital High School, 100 Valley Dr., Helena, MT 59601. A gathering will be at Retz Funeral Home at 3pm and a reception at 5463 Sahara Court on Friday, September 30. To offer a condolence or share a memory of Joe An, please visit: www.retzfuneralhome.com.<\/p>\n","photo":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/1268607.jpg","youtube_video_url":"","family_email":"","family_first_name":"","family_last_name":"","event_title5":"","event_date5":"","start_time5":"","end_time5":"","location5":"","address5":"","city5":"","state5":"","zipcode5":"","event_title6":"","event_date":"","start_time6":"","end_time6":"","location6":"","address6":"","city6":"","state6":"","zipcode6":"","event_title7":"","event_date7":"","start_time7":"","end_time7":"","location7":"","address7":"","city7":"","state7":"","zipcode7":"","event_title8":"","event_date8":"","start_time8":"","end_time8":"","location8":"","address8":"","city8":"","state8":"","zipcode8":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/23377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}