Joyce Bartholomew Fink, 74, of Chehalis, Washington, passed away May 6, 2024.
Joyce was born in Tucson, Arizona, on Jan. 7, 1950, to Davis Henry Bartholomew and Fern Randall Bartholomew. The sixth of 10 children, Joyce moved around a lot as a child, living in five states before she graduated from high school in 1968 in Houston, Texas.
She attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she studied home economics and minored in English. In college, she roomed with some of her older sisters and friends and counted it as one of the best times of her life. Following graduation, Joyce spent five years as a high school teacher. She bounced from small town school to small town school, teaching in Peets, Colorado, Duschane, Utah, and Soda Springs, Idaho, before finally landing in Idaho Falls. During summer break, she took a brief trip to visit her family in Provo, and it was there she met Dale Fink. After a brief long-distance courtship, the two married in the Salt Lake Temple on Dec. 29, 1978.
After her marriage, Joyce found herself in another small town: Centralia, Washington, where Dale worked as a newspaper distributor. The couple bought a home in Chehalis in 1979. Their first child, Jeremy, was born shortly after, followed by three more children — Mike, Jessica and Dave — within the next five years.
Despite a house full of small children, Joyce was always fiercely independent and used her college education and way with words to earn extra income. She wrote a humorous column about motherhood for the local paper, sold articles to a variety of magazines as a freelance photojournalist, and, once the children were older, started substitute teaching.
Eventually, Joyce went back to school and received her librarian certificate from Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. In 2001, a long-term sub position turned into a full-time job as the librarian at W.F. West High School, a job she held until her retirement in 2017. In her 16 years at the high school, she also advised the yearbook and newspaper staffs, drawing on her years in professional journalism.
Joyce used to say that working with young people kept her young. She thoroughly enjoyed being a mother, grandmother, aunt and mentor to the youths in her life.
Her reign as undisputed best grandma ever and super mom extraordinaire was unfortunately cut short by Parkinson’s disease. She passed peacefully at her home in Chehalis with her loved ones around her. She was interred at Claquato Cemetery in Chehalis following a funeral service on May 14, 2024.
She’s survived by her husband, Dale Henry Fink; her children, Jeremy Fink, Mike Fink (Nicole), Jessica Hernandez (Ruymán) and Dave Fink (Alisha); her grandchildren, Anya, Corinne, Caitlyn, Henry, Kai, Eli, Abigail, Avaleigh and Teo; her siblings, Marie Stepp, Bert Bartholomew (Sheri), LaRue Cowan, Joann Weidner (Walt), Beth Bos (Jake), James Bartholomew (Debbie), Randy Bartholomew (Janet) and Blaine Bartholomew; and dozens of nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews.
Joyce was buried in Claquato Cemetery on May 14, 2024, following a service at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chehalis.
