Joanne Carolyn Minato

Joanne Carolyn Weddle Minato was born the first child of Orville Otis Weddle and Laura Velma Ward Weddle in Klamath Falls, Oregon, on April 22, 1932.  Four siblings followed her: Velda, Barbara, James and Susan. 

Her family wandered some, but most of her childhood was spent in or near Chiloquin, Oregon. She spoke fondly of her time at Altamont Junior High in Klamath Falls and wistfully remembered her home on the Williamson River as her most favorite.

Music was a part of the Weddle household with plenty of singing and fiddle playing. After tapping their feet many times to the old-time fiddle tunes of Grandpa “Ed” Ward, Joanne and Velda took up the instrument together.

At Chiloquin High, Joanne cheered on the Panthers, sang in the choir, and worked at the local theater while lending a hand with Jimmy and Susie at home.  After graduating in 1950, she moved with her best friend Bidge to try her luck in the big city of “K. Falls.”  She renewed her acquaintance with Remo Minato, an older high school admirer, and fell head-over-heels in love. Joanne converted to Catholicism and they were married on a snowy day, January 23, 1954, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Chiloquin.

She and Remo planned to have six children, or so she always said.  True to their word, Robert Anthony, Kevin Maurice, Dena Marie, Teresa Maureen and Laura Ellen were born at Klamath Valley Hospital in the very room in which their mother was born. Joseph Remo was born at Bess Kaiser in Portland.

After Remo’s job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs moved them to Portland, Joanne and Remo settled their family on 196th Avenue in Rockwood, where Remo continues to preside over family gatherings and celebrations.

The childhood Joanne and Remo created for their children reflected the epitome of Oregon suburban life in the 1960s and 70s: a large, noisy household filled with six kids, numerous friends, pets, bikes, fashion dolls and baseballs, laughter, warmth and fun. Joanne’s wonderful sense of humor made everything fun. Whether it was building dollhouses from shoeboxes or clearing the dinner table, everyone laughed right along with her while making up goofy songs to accompany the task.

Although her family was the most important element of her life, she didn’t stay home baking cookies and sewing clothes (well, actually, she did) but there were many other facets to her life as well. For many years, she was chairperson of the elections board for the neighborhood precinct located at Rockwood Davis Elementary. After each election, she collected the ballots and delivered the ballot box to the Multnomah County office--usually with a couple of kids riding along.

She was creative in so many ways, including being an accomplished seamstress- expertly stitching many clever Halloween costumes, her girls' high school prom dresses and two incredibly beautiful wedding dresses. She enjoyed sketching portraits of her family and painting primitive landscapes of places they visited.  She instilled a love of birds and nature in all her children. Gardening was a passion and she always had a cherished pet or two--including, at one time, Bimbo, a bottle-fed orphaned fawn. She and Remo loved country drives and walks in the woods-- first around Chiloquin when dating and later near Mt. Hood. The whole family would pile into the Kingswood station wagon, pick up Grandma and Grandpa Weddle from their home in Wamic, and go bottle hunting, tramping around for hours on the Barlow Road, at Gate Creek or in Shaniko.

She loved antiquing and junk store shopping, camping around Oregon and the Northwest (she liked Beverly Beach and Fort Stevens State Parks when the kids were growing up), small towns, researching her genealogy and fiddle playing. Many of her happiest hours were spent jamming with the Oregon Old Time Fiddlers, picking with Sally Rash on the banjo and Dorothy Decker on piano, and performing with her Cabin Fever bandmates from Clackamas Community College.

In addition to all this, Joanne was a good cook. Dinners were a boisterous sit-down affair for eight (or more) around the old claw-foot dining table. From her mother-in-law she learned to make classic northern Italian dishes, such as polenta and tocio, and made fabulous pies in the style of her mother. During the school year she packed an infinite number of Lassie and Fireball XL-5 lunch boxes- or greeted the kids at noontime with home-made potato soup when they happily chose to skip recess and walk home for lunch with mom.

Most notably, Joanne was a mother. Not only to her six kids and her niece Rosie (Rose Marie Wright), but also a surrogate Mom to her kids’ friends and many neighborhood kids. She also served as den mother, campfire leader, Catechism teacher and room mother at school. For many years she looked after her great-great Aunt Sadie Long, delivered meals-on-wheels and spent countless happy hours entertaining the patients of east-county nursing homes. Her singing and lively fiddle playing regularly cheered the residents of Edgefield Manor where she and her pals were frequent volunteers.

Joanne’s inner soul was that of a reserved and sometimes shy person, yet she had the amazing gift of engaging with and accepting all different types of people. For that she is forever loved and remembered by so many.

While playing her fiddle at the annual church dinner, Joanne died suddenly and much too soon from a cerebral aneurysm on March 11, 1988 in Rockwood.