Bessie Joyce (Pillman) Tendrup passed away on March 15, 2026 at the age of 94.

She was born on January 18, 1932 in Hartland, North Devon, UK, to John and Bessie Pillman and was the youngest of four children. She was raised on a farm called Welsford Farm, which is still a working farm to this day. The home she lived in looks very much the same as it did then.

When her father passed away, she moved to Bideford, North Devon with her mother. Having graduated from school at 14, she started working various jobs until she left Bideford at 18. She moved to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK where she worked at the UK Royal Airforce base for two years with NAAFI (Navy, Army and Airforce Institutes). After leaving there, she worked various jobs including 8 years at a watch factory where she was a supervisor (a job she was very proud of).

She met and later married her husband Harold at the wedding dance of a mutual friend, when he asked her to dance. They danced the night away and loved to dance every chance they got from that night on.

Their son, Gary, was born in England and then, in the next year, November of 1962, they all moved to the USA.

They made their home near Balsam Lake where their daughter, Jolene, was born. They purchased a dairy farm and in 1970 sold that and moved to another near Amery where they remained. They milked cows until 1975. Joyce was a homemaker and loved raising the animals, from feeding the calves to raising ducks and geese, many of whom started their life in the house as ducklings and goslings. They were shown at the County Fair and were a summer attraction in the Apple River at the Country Dam.

In the Summer, she would be helping to bale hay and, in the fall, she would be helping to split and stack wood in the basement.

She always wanted to get a donkey so they found one and one night brought it home in the back seat of the car. Her name was Tinkerbell. All of the neighbors knew her well as she would slip under the electric wire gate to go and eat in the hayfield. Many a joke was told about that.

Joyce was an avid deer hunter and loved to tell the story of her big buck. It didn't have the biggest rack but it weighed more than anyone in the family had ever gotten.

She loved to bake and always had cookies in the freezer for company. She was famous for her quick breads and bundt cakes but her apple pies were requested by family, friends and neighbors. She would bake them and have them at the ready in the freezer for anyone who asked (the only payment was the return of her pie plate).

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Harold; brothers, George and John; and sister, Mary. Left to mourn are four children, Fiona Lambert of Bristol UK, Kevin Wiltshire Swansea of Wales, Gary (Rene) Tendrup of Amery, and Jolene (Scott) Olson of Amery; 9 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; along with several brother and sister-in-laws, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends here in the US as well as in the UK and Australia.

The last years of her life were spent in United Pioneer Home in Luck, WI. A special thank you to all of the wonderful staff there who took such good care of her and made her last years the best they could be.

A Celebration of Life will be on Thursday, April 2, 2026 from 4:00 to 7:00pm at Williamson-White Funeral Home in Amery, WI.