Joan Davidson Priest
March 24, 1931 – October 9, 2024
Joan Davidson Priest passed away peacefully surrounded by her family at home in Boise, Idaho on October 9, 2024. Complications of a stroke suffered a few days earlier led to her demise.
Joan was born in Drexel, Missouri on March 24, 1931 as the elder child of Dean and Grace (Barnum) Davidson, Idahoans who temporarily had moved to Missouri for work. The family returned to Idaho in 1932 and Dean began his long career as a teacher at Central Junior High School in Nampa. The family moved to the Davidson family farm near Meridian in 1941.
Joan took to Idaho farm life, and especially to horses. She loved joining her father and grandfather on summer cattle drives from the Treasure Valley up to the pastures of Long Valley in Valley County. From her earliest days, Joan was a hunter and naturalist who maintained a lifelong interest in the flora and fauna of wherever she lived or visited.
Joan graduated from Meridian High School in 1949 with particular interests in art and science. She wed high school classmate Leroy E. Brandt in August, 1951 and they settled in Meridian. Married until 1969, they had six children, who were all raised on the Meridian farm.
She began teaching at Meridian Middle School in the late 1960s. After earning a bachelors degree from Boise State University in 1968, Joan became the science instructor for a generation of west Ada County students.
Joan married Thomas W. Priest in 1971. The couple relocated to Colorado when Tom took a job there as director of USDA soil conservation efforts in 1978. They became avid adventurers, taking their Airstream trailer to Mexico, Alaska and points all over the continental United States. She and Tom also voyaged to Japan, London, Scotland, Denmark and around the Baltic Sea. They returned to Idaho following Tom’s retirement, living in Nampa and Caldwell until his death in 2011.
Joan was a longtime member of the Meridian United Methodist Church and proud of her membership in the Meridian BZ Chapter of PEO, a philanthropic educational organization for women. She served as Secretary of the Idaho Chapter of the Wally Bynum Airstream Club. She also participated teachers’ benevolent organizations and a variety of organized and personal charitable activities.
Joan had a special affinity for her family cabin in the trees of Pine Lakes Ranch above Cascade Lake in Valley County where she enjoyed spending time walking, gardening and working on her arts and crafts projects. In later years she regularly was accompanied in the valley and to the mountains by special friend Wallace (“Wally”) Hitt until he passed away in 2020.
Joan is survived by brother Glen Davidson (Shirlee), of Brentwood, TN; children Karen Brandt, of Sacramento, CA; Marcia Leitch, of Talcott, WV; Eric Brandt, of Boise, ID; Victor Brandt, of Honolulu, HI; Valerie Brandt (Blair Hall) of Singapore; and Audrey Brandt of Boise, ID. She had seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the Meridian United Methodist Church, 235 E Pine Avenue in Meridian, at 2:00 pm on Saturday, November 30, 2024.
In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes contributions to the Meridian United Methodist Church www.meridianumc.com and the Idaho Humane Society idahohumanesociety.org . The reception in the church hall following the service will celebrate her cowgirl style in Western attire.
At her request, the family will scatter her ashes at a later date in a place she loved in Valley County.
Arrangements are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Parlor of Garden City.