Joanne Barker Dayley

Joanne Barker Dayley, 90, passed away peacefully in her South Ogden home on December 29, 2023, surrounded by her children and loving family members.  She now joins her beloved husband and eternal companion Alan in the next life, following his passing in 2022.  Spry, witty, and joyful until her final days on earth, she willfully delayed her own passing until all three of her children could be present at her bedside.  

Joanne remained a committed member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her entire life, serving faithfully in countless callings. Her unbounded Christlike affection for each and every one of her children and grandchildren will resonate through them for generations to come. Her abilities to listen and empathize without passing judgment, or showing indifference, are legendary. 

Committed to learning, teaching, curiosity, and wonder, Joanne exemplified how to experience a life full of joy and constant enrichment. Embracing the agency afforded to her in this life, Joanne proved to all that cultivating a positive disposition is choice. Her long and admirable life stands testament to the values of faith, resilience, temperance, and unconditional love.  

Born in Ogden on November 7, 1933, to Ina Ross Barker and Wayne Ririe Barker, Joanne was a proud Ogdenite through and through. Under the care of a loving mother, Joanne and her older sister, Carol, grew up on lower 18th Street, in the shadow of the Welcome to Ogden sign over Washington Blvd. Joanne attended Dee Elementary, Mound Fort Junior High, Ogden High School, and Weber State Junior College. As a child of the Depression and World War II, she lived in a rented duplex in the 1930s and 1940s. Joanne may have stemmed from humble financial circumstances, but her home was bright with love. Ina read books to her daughters ritually. She gifted Joanne a lasting love of great literature.  Ina also made sure Joanne and her sister had piano lessons, tap dance lessons, choir opportunities, and provided them with day trips to swim and enjoy the mountains. In her youth, Joanne enjoyed her pet cats, dancing, singing, cheerleading, and church activities with members of the Ogden LDS 10th Ward.   

Throughout their childhood, Joanne and Carol also found support from their extended family. Some of Joanne’s fondest childhood memories included Sunday night music jams at Grandma Ross’s home in Hooper and sleepovers at her grandparents’ dairy farm in North Ogden. Her grandfather, Clarence Barker, made sure his Quality Dairy milk was delivered to his granddaughters’ home each week. Her grandmother, Myrtle Barker, loved and cared for Joanne and Carol as if they were siblings to her youngest daughter, Elaine. The three girls enjoyed playing on the farm, tagging behind older aunts and uncles, making their own fun, and visiting the Barker Service Station owned by Joanne’s father. Toward the end of World War II in 1945, young Joanne was devastated by the loss of her uncle, James, who was killed in Italy while serving with the 10th Mountain Division. To honor his patriotic sacrifice, she has kept a framed portrait of him in full uniform displayed in her home.  

Following her time at Weber State Junior College, Joanne completed a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at BYU in 1955. She taught in Ogden Schools for two years before moving with friends to Long Beach, California, where she took up a new teaching position. After a year, she returned to Ogden to care for her mother, who had developed a sudden illness. During this period, she began dating Alan Dayley. Alan and Joanne first met at Ogden High and later at Weber State Junior College years earlier. (Born just two days apart, they in fact had  shared the Dee Hospital nursery together). They married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 14, 1959, less than a month after Ina’s life was tragically cut short. 

After living in Bountiful for a short period, Joanne and Alan moved to the Burch Creek area of South Ogden, where they raised their three children. She returned to teaching in 1972 at Marlon Hills Elementary in South Ogden and moved later to Roosevelt Elementary in Washington Terrace. Over her 27-year teaching career, she touched the lives of hundreds of students. She taught them to enjoy reading, to learn math and science, and to cultivate self-confidence. She was beloved by her students whom she respected and never patronized. Long after her retirement, Joanne enjoyed lifelong relationships with fellow teachers. 

Joanne had a deep love of family and church history. She was an active member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP). She loved to share family history with her children and grandchildren and drew spiritual inspiration from her pioneer ancestors. Joanne was exceptionally well read. She credited her mother for her love of books. She and Alan also valued travel. They often traveled with their children taking them across the United States multiple times as well as spending time with them in Europe, Hawaii, and Southeast Asia.  

During retirement, Joanne dedicated herself to her family and to her own continuing education. Alan and Joanne provided annual family trips, called “Dayley Odysseys,” to California, Mexico, Alaska, Park City, and church sites. These adventures nourished sites. These adventures nourished family relationships through humor, recreation, games, and exploration. They also inspired a new generation of avid learners and travelers in the family. Joanne was a beloved matriarch to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and cultivated special relationships with each of them. 

In her final years, Joanne read voraciously, completing two, three, or four books in a week. She shared with others her belief that God takes you when you are done learning in this life. After her husband passed in 2022, she commented, “Well, I guess I have more learning to do before it’s my turn.” Joanne’s surviving family members, who will continue to learn and draw inspiration from her life, include her three children, Cheryl Quackenbush (Gary), Lisa Newman (Mark), and Robert Dayley (Carrie); as well as 11 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by both her husband, parents, her sister, Carol Hadley; and two grandchildren, Hannah Barker Dayley and Sarah Fletcher Dayley.   

In lieu of flowers, the Dayley family asks for donations to the Alan Joanne Dayley Endowment in Services for Students with Disabilities at Weber State University at give.weber.edu/dayley or call 801-626-6073 for details.

The family offers a special thank you to Melissa and Hayley of Canyon HomeCare and Hospice for helping Joanne spend her final days at home surrounded by her family.

Funeral Services will be held on Thursday, January 4, 2024 at 11 a.m. at the LDS Burch Creek 3rd Chapel, 5161 South 1300 East, South Ogden. Friends may visit with family on Thursday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church. Interment, Lindquist’s Washington Heights Memorial Park, 4500 Washington Blvd.  

Services will be live-streamed and available the day of the services by scrolling to the bottom of Joanne’s obituary page at: www.lindquistmortuary.com, where condolences may also be shared.

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