Joan Breidenbach

Joan Lucia (Dufner) Breidenbach

Joan Lucia Breidenbach, 95, of Missoula, passed away peacefully at home on December 15. 2023. She was born August 24, 1928, in Savoy, Montana to Andrew Dufner and Teresa Lucia Volk as the second of six children. Her siblings Margaret Gertude Dufner, Robert Volk Dufner, Jerome Anthony Dufner, Father Andrew Joseph Dufner, SJ., and Mary Louise (Dufner) McCormick all preceded her in their heavenly call.

She married John Joseph Breidenbach on September 3, 1949, in Great Falls, Montana. They divorced July 21, 1981. He preceded her in death. Their 11 children are Thomas A Breidenbach (Son Hwa), Donna M Breidenbach, Anne E Galbraith (James), Karen K Ulmer, Mary T "Terri" Wilcken, Geraldine J "Geri" Ingalls (Mark), Janice L Vanegas, Michael G "Mike" (Angela), Kenneth J "Ken" (Tracy), James A "Jim" (Stacey), Patricia J "PJ" Hanson. Her descendants include 29 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren. Her greatest joy was watching the "chaos of all the children play" at family events.

Joan received her associate degree as a registered nurse on November 28, 1949, in Great Falls. The family moved to Missoula in 1953. After raising 11 children, Joan went back to school and earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from Montana State University on June 8, 1979.  She started working September 24, 1979, for St. Patrick's Hospital in Missoula, retiring in 1997.

During her retirement, Joan took up the hobbies of clogging, tap dancing, and ice skating. She loved gardening, especially roses, and feeding the birds in the little houses in her backyard. She loved family gatherings, attending all the grand and great grandchildren events from concerts to baseball to soccer, going to Griz basketball games on season tickets, and crocheting gifts like hanging tea towels and Afghan blankets. Every family at Christmas received handmade chocolate bon bons and her tea towels in a long-standing tradition.

Some of Joan's memories she shared were moving with her father's railroad job from town to town, across the highline of Montana, living in a house with cracks they'd stuff paper in to keep the house warm. She talked about playing basketball so her high school could have a girls' team.

At Joan's diminutive height of, "I'm five-foot-one and a quarter, and do not forget the quarter". She'd giggle at the picture that must have made to those in the stands. When asked if she played well, she emphatically shook her head while laughing, but retained a love of basketball her entire life. 

Joan attended the Blessed Trinity Catholic Community Church. Her lifelong faith gives us hope that we'll be reunited one day with her in Heaven.