Joan Saabye, 99, died peacefully surrounded by her family on February 3, 2026, at Miller Pointe in Mandan.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 AM, on Monday, February 16, at Church of Corpus Christi, 1919 N 2nd St, Bismarck, ND. To view the service livestream, click the link provided~ Joan. 

Visitation will be held from 2-4 PM, Sunday, February 15, at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E Divide Ave, Bismarck. A Vigil service will be held at 4 PM.

Visitation will continue one hour prior to Mass.

Burial will take place at Saint Mary’s Cemetery.

Joan Saabye was born in Bismarck, North Dakota on September 19, 1926, minutes before her twin sister, Phyllis. She was the second of three children born to Leonard and Mary Ann MacMartin. She attended school at St. Mary’s Grade School and St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck and went on to complete a two-year nursing degree at then St. Alexius School of Nursing. Joan continued her nursing education at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester Minnesota where she met her future husband, John Saabye. Joan and John were married at St. Mary’s Church in Bismarck, N.D. on November 4, 1947. They lived in Rochester for three years following their marriage. Their first child, Jeannine, was born in Rochester. They moved to Toledo, Ohio where John worked on an iron ore carrier on the Great Lakes. Jill, their second child, was born in Toledo. Two years later, they returned to North Dakota and called it home for the remainder of their lives. Peter and Marianne, born sixteen months apart, completed the family.

Joan completed a four-year degree in nursing at the University of Mary in 1972, graduating with honors. She worked in nursing her entire career including as operating room supervisor at St. Alexius Hospital, instructor of nursing at then Bismarck School of Nursing, and as a public health nurse with Bismarck/Burleigh Public Health. She started and ran a senior wellness program in her home parish, Corpus Christi, for 10 years.

Joan was a highly skilled knitter, an artist, and lifelong learner. She loved to read. She swam every morning at the Bismarck YMCA with a group of women she called her Y Pals well into her eighties.

She was generous and compassionate to those around her -a role model- living by words, but more often by example.

Joan is survived by children, Jeannine Saabye of Bismarck; Jill Saabye Meier, husband Joe, their son Patrick, his wife Katie, and their daughter Claire of Bismarck; Peter Saabye, and his wife Joyce of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and their son Matthew of Spring Park, Minnesota; and Marianne Saabye, her husband Thomas Cutler, and their son Jed of Sussex, England.

Joan was preceded in death by her husband, John; her parents Leonard and Mary Ann MacMartin; her twin sister Phyllis Charlton; her brother Dean MacMartin; and her son-in-law Ray Napierkowski.

Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or a charity of choice.