Joyce McGladrey Ebert

Joyce McGladrey Ebert

Joyce M. Ebert, wife of the late Doctor J.W. ("Bill") Ebert Jr. and much loved mother, grandmother, sister and friend, passed away after a brief illness on January 3, 2004.
Born in Edgecomb, Washington on April 26, 1922, she was the daughter of Northwest pioneers, Chauncey and Dora McGladrey, who arrived here in 1903 to homestead on the Stilliguamish River. Joyce was the fraternal twin of June and the second to last of eight children in the large and active McGladrey clan.
Growing up in Stanwood, Washington, she graduated from West Stanwood High School in 1940. Joyce served as a naval chauffeur during the war years of 1941 to 1945. After a move to Everett with her mother and sisters, she met and married Dr. Bill, a Creighton University Medical School graduate, in 1949. They moved to Chicago, where Bill took his surgical training and residency at Franklin Blvd. Hospital. It was there that Joyce and Bill celebrated the birth of their first child, Janise Ann. After completing his surgical training, Bill and Joyce returned to Everett to raise their family, including three more children, Valerie, Matthew and Melissa. Bill went on to practice medicine for 50 years in Everett.
Throughout her long and full life, Joyce was an active and philanthropic minded citizen, devoting her tireless energy, creative talents and unflappable optimism to many charitable, civic and community endeavors. Among these were the parish of Immaculate Conception, the Everett Assistance League, numerous community forums and committees, the Snohomish County Historical Society as well as the Everett Golf and Country Club.
In 1973, Joyce became the first woman to be elected to the Everett City Council. She served two years in this position and was then selected by her Council peers to serve as interim Mayor when Robert C. Anderson resigned due to poor health. During her tenure she was a leader in an innovative drive to revitalize and beautify the Everett downtown business district. She declined to run in the next general election in favor of her own many business interests including Ebert Ltd, a local real estate brokerage firm.
Among other projects, Joyce, with her business partner, the late Theodore Dahl, was instrumental in developing the first major hotel in the downtown core of Everett, and the only such facility at the time along the critical I-5 corridor between the Canadian border and Seattle. Retiring in 1991, Joyce continued to be active in Everett business and civic affairs, volunteering until just this past year with the Everett Chamber as a counselor to local businesses.
Joyce was preceded in death in 2002 by her beloved husband of 52 years, Bill. Also preceding her were her parents; her brothers and sisters, Mae, George, Clara, Robert and Marguerite.
She leaves behind her sisters, Rae Jubie of Marysville and June Hunter of Renton; as well as her children, Janise (Steve) Hawes of Seattle, Valerie (Lawrence) of North Carolina, Matthew (Cheryl) of Everett, and Melissa (Walter) Selden of Everett. She also leaves her adored grandchildren, Ellis Hawes, Alexander and Andrew Joseph Sheikman, Maximillian and Julia Ebert, and Elizabeth and John Selden.
A Memorial Mass to celebrate her spirit and life will be held at the Immaculate Conception Church, Hoyt Avenue in Everett on Friday, January 9, 2003 at 12:15pm. Private inurnment at Pioneers' Cemetery in Arlington, Washington.
In lieu of flowers you are encouraged to donate to the J.W. and Joyce Ebert Scholarship fund at Archibishop Murphy High School, Mill Creek, Washington.
The family wishes to extend our thanks to Purdy and Walters with Cassidy Funeral Home for their caring support and assistance.