Joyce Avis Barclay

Joyce Avis Grafsgaard Barclay, 99, of McHenry, ND, passed away Sunday, May 19, 2024 at the NCHS Care Center in McVille, ND.

Avis was born September 12, 1924 at home on the Paulsrud farm in Nelson County, ND.  Later, her parents moved the family to a farm in Paradise Township in Eddy County, ND.  Avis married Vernon Barclay on October 10, 1944.  She loved music, dancing, sewing, baking, meeting and making new friends.  During her lifetime, she made many quilts…most she gave away.  She held many jobs besides at-home mom.  She worked at Red Willow Resort in the kitchen and at the Binford Café.  She became a CNA and her job brought her to both Cooperstown and McVille nursing homes.  She loved and cared deeply for the residents.  Her fondest memory was sitting on her grandpa John Grafsgaard’s lap, listening to his stories of the Grafsgaard farm in Norway that he had left behind to come to America.  She remembered promising grandpa John, back then, to some day travel to Norway to see the place where he had been born and raised.  She fulfilled this promise by going to Norway with a Minot Hostfest group trip.  Upon her arrival there, relatives picked her up in a “race car”, drove her to grandpa John’s place of birth, and stood in the actual kitchen where he had eaten with his family.

She will be missed.

Her family includes 4 children, Joann Renae Briss of McHenry, Ronald Vernon Barclay (Donna) of Binford, Julie Ann Dramstad (Duane) of Hannaford, and Robert Vernal Barclay (Joni) of Binford; 18 grandchildren; many great grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Albert and Julia (Paulsrud) Grafsgaard; 2 brothers, Clifford and Charles; her husband, Vernon O. Barclay; son, Richard Barclay; grandson, Kaare Briss; and great grandson, Rhett Stokkeland.

A visitation to celebrate Avis’s life will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in McHenry, ND, followed by the funeral service at 2:00 p.m.  Burial will be at Bethlehem Cemetery, rural McHenry.