Joe Donaldson

Joe Donaldson was born October 4, 1924 in Acheson Kansas. He passed on February 14, 2011. Joe was around six years old when he and his father sat in the drug store counter eating their lunch looking across the street when Bonnie and Clyde were robbing a bank. Just after Bonnie fired off several rounds at the blue glass awning outside the bank while sitting on her car waiting for Clyde, little Joe jumped off his chair and darted towards the outside door to investigate. Joe's father caught him before he made it outside the drug store. A few years later young Joe led the Amelia Earhart parade in Kansas with his paint pony named Patches. Virginia, Joe's Mother was a former classmate of Amelia Earhart. When the depression hit, Joe was 13 years old when he, his Mother, Virginia, younger sister Mary and brother Tom started a type of catering business to the workers of the "CCC's" and "WPA's" along the Oregon coast. They sold meal tickets for $1.00 apiece to the workers at their camps and supplied the roasted chickens, potatoes and vegetable meals. Joe was their top salesman according to his brother Tom. During WWII Joe and his Father sold mules and horses to the army when they lived in Walla Walla Washington. He later married his high school sweetheart, Rachel. Joe, Rachel and some of their classmates from Caldwell Idaho moved to California to work in the defense plants towards the latter part of the war. Joe also drove a tow truck during the war. In 1953 they moved the family to Phoenix. Joe worked as a salesman and manager for General GMC until 1978, selling semi-trucks tractor trailers. In 1979, Joe started Donaldson Equipment Sales and Salvage Inc. on Buckeye Road in Phoenix selling semi-trucks tractor trailers to customers specifications. Joe is survived by Rachel, seven children, twelve grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Visitation will be held on Sunday, February 20, 2011 from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M. at Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary, 719 N. 27th Ave. in Phoenix. A Funeral Mass will be held on Monday, February 21, 2011 at 11:00 A.M. at Our Lady of Fatima Church, 1414 S. 17th Ave. in Phoenix. Interment will follow at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery. www.greenwoodmemorylawn.com