Joann Edwards of Great Falls, passed away on Sunday, June 28, 2020, of natural causes at the age of 87. Josephine was born on February 21, 1933, in Monroe, MI, to Andrew Rebmann and Garnet Flowers. She was their third child with older brother, Charles, and sister, Kathleen.
Her father died in 1944 and the next year, she and her mother moved to California to be with her mother’s sister and her husband. They lived in Oakland for a while and eventually moved to a ranch near Gilroy, CA. While there, her sister, Kathie, met Phil Pings of Augusta, and they moved to Augusta. Joann convinced her mother to move to Augusta, so they moved there in 1948. It was there that she met her future husband, William Edwards, of nearby Gilman. She attended Great Falls High her junior and senior years until marrying William on February 17, 1950, at St. Ann’s Cathedral in Great Falls. While living in Great Falls, they had four children, Andrea (1951), Michael (1953), Debra (1954), and Cynthia (1956).
In 1957, they moved to Cut Bank and began 15 years of farming and ranching. They moved to Choteau in 1961, and later west of Conrad in 1962. In 1972, the family moved back to Great Falls. In 1974, they built the stockyards west of Great Falls.
She worked as a bookkeeper for a few organizations, the latest being Kairos Youth Services from 1984 through her retirement in 2005.
To read the complete obituary and share condolences, visit the O'Connor Funeral Home website.
