Joanne Garbusjuk co-owned Boehm's Candies in Issaquah

Like other employees at Boehm's Candies in Issaquah, Joanne Garbusjuk would punch in and out of work on the company time clock. It wasn't necessary. She and her husband, Bernard Garbusjuk, owned the company.

Mrs. Garbusjuk, 51, died of cancer Sept. 5 at the couple's Issaquah home.

They were opposite personalities. While Mrs. Garbusjuk quietly trained new employees in everything from giving tours at the Eastside landmark to adding sales receipts by hand, Bernard Garbusjuk enthusiastically joked with customers and employees.

"Joanne was the calm in my storm of activity," he said. "I'm the outgoing one. She was the one who got things done."

Kristen Blumer, a former employee, agreed.

"She was the calm and peace in Boehm's," Blumer said. "She trained us Boehm's girls — that's what we high-school girls called ourselves when we worked there in the 1980s. She knew our angst and shared our laughter. She would roll her eyes at Bernard's antics.

"Working at Boehm's was a harder job than fast food or other jobs, but it was worth it. We all learned so much from Joanne and Bernard."

While Bernard Garbusjuk put on the public show and enthusiasm, it was his wife who helped turn Boehm's into a tourist attraction, he said. When tours were implemented 20 years ago, she organized the program with Suzanne Suther, director of the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce.

His wife, along with Suther, was a visionary, Bernard said.

"They were the ones who figured out that tourism would be good for Issaquah," he said.

Suther agreed that local tourism was helped by Mrs. Garbusjuk.

"Joanne wasn't a public person, but she always worked behind the scenes on whatever needed doing," Suther said. "She was the most tenderhearted, loving person imaginable. She knew I liked classical music, and about 15 years ago, before it was common to make cassettes, Joanne made me a cassette of songs she knew I would like."

When conventions or nonprofit groups needed chocolate for an event, it was Mrs. Garbusjuk who followed through.

"Joanne and Bernard have been very generous supporting any special event," said Jeanne Knocker, convention-services manager of the East King County Visitors & Convention Bureau. "Anytime we asked, Joanne was willing to help."

Mrs. Garbusjuk, who was born in the Philippines on Jan. 21, 1950, moved to the U.S. with her family in 1960. She met her future husband while she was selling tickets at a Seattle movie theater.

While they dated, the future Mrs. Garbusjuk wouldn't accept gifts from Bernard. For her 21st birthday, he rented a billboard in downtown Seattle as a birthday greeting and surprise. They married later that year.

"I fell in love with her beauty and her smile," he said. "Even though she was sick with cancer, when we were on vacation last year she was carded (asked for age identification) in a restaurant."

The couple are well-known in candy-maker circles.

"I've been getting telephone calls from all around the world from friends and candy makers who were planning to come to the memorial service," Bernard Garbusjuk said.

"Because of the terrorism, they can't get flights to Seattle."

Other survivors include Mrs. Garbusjuk's daughter, Narissa Garbusjuk of Issaquah; son, Tyson Garbusjuk of Las Vegas; brothers and sisters, Joseph Tan of Snohomish, Iza Ramos of Thousand Oaks, Calif., Susan Carlyle McClure and Alan Bautista of Bellevue, and James Bautista and Roland Bautista of Seattle.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 220 Mountain Park Blvd., Issaquah.

Remembrances may be made to a charity of the donor's choice.