Indian Wells, CA - Joan Conlin, devoted wife to Ed, loving mom to six children, and adventurous JoJo to her thirteen grandchildren, died peacefully on April 2, 2025, at age 91 with a soul full of gratitude for her "fabulous life" and to be rejoining her late husband Eddie. She was surrounded by family and her wonderful and tireless caregiver, Idalia.

Joan Delores Prevost was born on May 3, 1933, in Sidney Montana, the youngest of twelve children born to Peter and Mabelle Prevost. She enjoyed retelling the story of her French speaking parents coming to the plains of northeastern Montana from Quebec (Peter) and Maine (Mabelle), and where, in 1907, they arrived on a tract of land near the Three Buttes area. They were the first to till the soil on their homestead, with a horse-drawn plow in a tough climate. The homestead prospered as they filled their self-built farmhouse with children and love. She never tired of telling her children about her early years, such as how she kept warm at night by heating a rock in the coal stove, and taking it to bed wrapped in a blanket, or how she and her sister travelled every day to a one-room schoolhouse by horse.

Joan was raised on that farm until she was 13, when her parents moved to Sidney and turned the farm over to her older brothers.

After high school, Joan attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington and the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. Home for the holidays in 1953, she met Ed Conlin from Williston, North Dakota. Their three-month courtship blossomed into a seventy-year marriage.

She and Ed moved to Bismarck, North Dakota in 1955 to further Ed's career in the family business, Conlin's Furniture. They spent 25 years in Bismarck where their life became a rich mixture of raising children, socializing with friends, and "roughing it" with their kids on the waters of the Missouri River and Lake Tschida.

Joan was the forward momentum in her family's life, creating a magical childhood of freedom with unwavering support. She had a bold, fun-loving personality and the gift to conjure up the kind of surroundings and atmosphere that made the people in her life feel special. She was a talented cook, bridge player and singer, in addition to being a magician at choreographing the many moving parts of a large family constantly in motion: On the family's small houseboat on the Missouri River, she would cook a meal for eight on a small single burner stove and then repeat that same achievement for breakfast. When the kids went to summer camp she would sew name tags on each article of clothing for every child. And Sunday mornings she tamed the chaos of dressing kids up in their Sunday best for church, on time.

As her children grew up and became more self-sufficient, she and Ed established a restaurant named The East 40 which is still a popular Bismarck destination 50 years later, now known as 40 Steak and Seafood. Joan and Ed spent more than a year scouring old farms and antique shops to design the building using reclaimed materials. Joan artfully designed the interior emphasizing vintage artifacts of North Dakota history. She also returned to college to finish her degree and moved with Ed to Minneapolis where she started her own interior design studio.

After many decades living in the great north Joan and Ed decamped to the warmth of the California desert, enjoying many visits from their extended family, eager to share the sunshine and blue sky. It was there she shared her personal reflections on life, with a contagious spirit of joy and gratitude. To her children she was the family's Chief Logistics Officer, Human Resources Director, Wardrobe Consultant, Executive Chef, Parole Officer, Morality Police, and Feral-Golden-Retriever Tolerator. She gave them so much.

Joan is survived by her son Joe, daughter Kathleen Sayler, son Patrick, son Kelly (Liz), daughter Maureen Rudd (Gordon), daughter Michelle (Maryanne Murray), twelve grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband Edward, eleven brothers & sisters, son-in-law Russ Sayler, and grandson Jason Sayler. A celebration of Joan and Ed's life will be held this summer in Minneapolis, with a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Heartview Foundation in memory of Joan Conlin.