Joanne Glatter

It was the heart of the depression when Joanne Seeley was born on December 26, 1932 at home in Spearfish, SD. The third of four daughters, her parents—Edna and Ken Seeley—thought she was “the best Christmas present ever.” Times were difficult in her childhood, but like many in those years the family was resourceful and had a large garden, raised chickens for eggs and poultry, and father hunted and fished. Joanne learned to milk cows, make soap, preserve jellies and jams, pluck and dress slaughtered poultry, and can produce and fruit. All girls were expected to help keep the house clean, and there was yard work, too. “Remember, you are the Seeley girls,” was their parents’ favorite expression for setting high expectations.

She walked to schools that were only blocks away, and as all do made friends but also suffered exclusion by cliques. She loved the dancing lessons after school. Jitterbugging was a favorite, and she always said that if there was a next life, she would be a singer and dancer. A trumpeter in the high school marching band, and member of the glee club, she always wanted to be a cheerleader but never made the cut. But she was athletic and played tennis, baseball, and basketball; she also learned to ride bareback. Although she never dated in high school, she did attend the junior and senior proms with other young women. Attending “stag,” the young women bought their own corsages for their formal gowns and walked to the school. She graduated high school in 1950 in a class of 50, a member of the National Honor Society.

Joanne entered South Dakota State College in 1950. It was there she met Robert T. Fulton, and they were married in 1952. The births of four sons—Kenneth, Michael, Bret, and Scott—kept her from finishing her degree, but she returned to college in 1973 and completed a two-year Associate Degree program in nursing. Inspired, she completed her Bachelor’s Degree in 1974 and went on to earn her Master’s Degree in Nursing in 1980 at the University of Kansas.

Robert Fulton, Joanne’s first husband, died in 1986, but her work with wound care and dialysis patients at the University of Kansas medical center allowed her to meet and marry the widowed Dr. Thomas R. Glatter in 1987. Soon thereafter they moved from Kansas City, KS, to the Phoenix, AZ, area. Married 35 years until Thomas died in 2022, they traveled widely in Europe and loved their lives in the desert valley of Phoenix and Scottsdale and explored widely the magnificent landscape of northern Arizona’s the Mogollon Rim, usually accompanied by their rescued greyhounds Wolfgang and Cole.

She will be remembered for her kindness, thoughtfulness, and selflessness, always putting others before herself. She taught her sons to be hard-working and goal-oriented but also open-minded and humble. She enjoyed simple pleasures such as a good gin martini, a 1,000-piece puzzle, or playing along with TV Jeopardy!

Joanne is survived by her four sons, two stepdaughters—Susan Kamman, Esq. and Dr. Kathryn Glatter—10 grandchildren, and her youngest sister, Mary Quimby. Joanne’s other 2 sisters, Margaret and Ellen, preceded her in death. Burial services will be private.