Cathy Jo Vance

CATHY JO VANCE, 43, passed away on January 24, 2024, in Missoula, Montana.

Cathy Jo was born on Wednesday, April 30, 1980, in Missoula, Montana, to Betty Jo Maughan Vance and Stephen R. Vance. She was the second child born to the family. She had one older brother, Weston, who had just turned 2 years of age and was excited to welcome a new sibling and friend into the family. Unfortunately, Cathy Jo was born with a rare and very serious chromosomal disorder known as Trisomy 13. Her condition, undetected prior to birth, caused her severe physical and mental disabilities and she was not expected to live. She beat the odds and made it home from the hospital with her many challenges, not the least of which resulted in having to be resuscitated by her father, Stephen, many times when she quit breathing and was unresponsive. Curiously, these emergency events seemed to coincide when her father was present enabling him to apply necessary intervention. These traumatic events occurred intermittently during her early life.

Cathy Jo endured many surgical interventions in her life, each one requiring serious parental challenges for her care. Her amazing tenacity of spirit kept her on the earth much longer than medical science could explain.

Despite her medical condition Cathy Jo displayed loving, adaptive, and authentic personality and was so loved by her parents and older brother, Weston, and her large extended family. She surely touched the lives of all who knew her.

Cathy Jo is survived by her father, Stephen R. Vance, Missoula, MT, her brother, S. Weston Vance, Salt Lake City, UT, guardian Mina Airhart, Missoula, MT, and many aunts and uncles, cousins, and second cousins on both sides of her family.

Cathy Jo was laid to rest in the Logan City Cemetery in Logan, UT, on February 24, 2024, next to her mother, Betty Jo, who preceded her in death in 2016.