JOANNE DAWSON, 87, of Cherokee, Iowa, passed away on Friday, June 26, 2026 at Accura Healthcare in Cherokee, Iowa.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, July 1, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Cherokee, Iowa. Pastor Jason Letsche will officiate. Burial will be in the Oak Hill Cemetery at Cherokee, Iowa. Visitation with the family present will take place on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee located at 207 E. Main Street. Services will be livestreamed through the assistance of Fuller Digital Solutions on the Boothby Funeral Home website. Online condolences may be left at www.boothbyfuneral.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials in Joanne’s honor to Trinity Lutheran Church or Cherokee Regional Hospice.

Joanne was born on June 5, 1939 to Franz and Henrietta (Fischer) Rubbert at Marcus, Iowa. She graduated from Washington High School in 1957. She attended Mankato Commercial College. After college, she roomed with her lifelong friends, Lorinne Bergman, Joan Forcier and Eleanor Sechler while she worked in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was united in marriage to James “Jim” Dawson on October 25, 1968 at the Little Brown Church at Nashua, Iowa.

Joanne worked as an A & W Car hop in Cherokee, and was an ROTC assistant Secretary to the Colonel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She then was the bookkeeper for Warren Curtis, and Co, C & D Bookkeeping, Hope’s Fashion Farm, and Jeanne’s Boutique. She joined her husband Jim as a bookkeeper at France Grain and Feed, when he took sole ownership in 1987. She retired in 2004.

She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cherokee, Iowa, where she was active in Ladies Aide and the women’s church groups.

Joanne stayed active delivering Meals on Wheels and volunteering at nursing homes. In her free time, Joanne loved playing Tripoly with friends, reading, gardening, playing solitaire, and attending her children and grandchildren’s activities. In her younger years, she and Jim enjoyed snowmobiling, camping, and traveling. She enjoyed drag racing her red 1963 Chevy Impala.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Jim Dawson, and son-in-law Tim Flaherty, sisters Joyce (Clarence) Nagel, Jerolyn Attwood, father-in-law and mother-in-law John and Myrtle Dawson, sisters-in-law Darlys (Ronnie) Stevens and Audrey (Carl) Pitts, brother-in-law John “Jack” Dawson and nephew Roger Pitts.

Joanne will lovingly be remembered by her four children, Jeff (Helen) Dawson of Yankton, South Dakota, Jena (Chris) Munson of Omaha, Nebraska, Jodi Flaherty (Steve Sanford) of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Jamie (Tracy) Renken of Cleghorn, Iowa; eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren Andrew Dawson (Paige May) and their children Sawyer, Banks, and Drew, Elizabeth Dawson (fiancé Lance) Shannon (Landon) Hughett and their daughter Millie, Sean (Emma) Flaherty, Zachary (Jayda) Munson, Emily Munson, Katie Flaherty (fiancé Cole), and Maggie Flaherty; sister Janice (Carl) Manning of Shelton, Washington; sister-in-law Sharon Dawson of Chandler, Arizona, and brothers-in-law Joe Attwood of Savoy, Illinois and Tom (Doris) Dawson of Washta, Iowa; also many nieces and nephews.