Sorted by date Results 93 - 117 of 415
Wilma, 92, passed away peacefully on August 28, 2021, surrounded by her family. Wilma was born to David and Rebecca Churchill on June 25, 1928, in Craig, Alaska, Prince of Whales Island. She was the eldest of five children. Wilma enjoyed village life during a time when traditions of both tribal and small Alaska towns honored their elders and graciously respected individual rights. Wilma was an advocate for Alaska Native civil rights. She was of the Haida Nation, Raven Moiety, Yak-Laa-Naas Clan...
Lucille Margaret Merrill, age 85, passed away at Providence Hospital in Anchorage on July 21. Lucille was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1935. It wasn't long before her adventurous family took on a project that would define her life. They built a boat and sailed to Alaska on a summer voyage. One of their stops was Wrangell, and they fell in love and decided to stay and work commercial fishing. While attending school, she would spend her summers with her family fishing. Thinking she was missing o...
Services for William I. Churchill will be held Saturday. Churchill, 88, a lifelong Wrangell resident, died July 8. Graveside services are planned for 2 p.m. Saturday at the old cemetery, with a memorial potluck to follow at 3 p.m. at the American Legion Hall. For the memorial, the family asks that people bring “any items or Native artwork that Bill made for you, to share for a moment.” In lieu of flowers, the family asks people to donate to American Legion Post 6 or a charity of their choice....
Clayton died suddenly in his home of 45+ years in Coffman Cove, Alaska. He was born in Santa Barbara, CA, and shortly after birth moved to Alaska when his mother, Marcella Smalley "Opheim," returned home. While not born in Alaska he was the essence of an Alaskan man, hardy, handy, possessing the inner strength and will to conquer whatever came his way. He was raised in a fishing family, spending summers at the family fish camp on Prince of Wales Island with his siblings and grandparents, Roy and...
Longtime Wrangell resident Chuck Traylor, 86, died July 13 at Wrangell Medical Center. As Chuck would say, he had a good run, his family wrote. He was born in Nebraska in 1934, and his family was in and out of Alaska several times in the 1940s and early 1950s before settling in Alaska permanently. In 1948, the Traylor family was living at the floating logging camp in Hood Bay on Admiralty Island. There, Chuck and his sister, Vona, adopted a starving orphaned fawn, raised it, and released it....
William Irving Churchill, "Uncle Bill," 88, passed away July 8 in Wrangell, where he was born in September 1932. Bill led a full and wonderful life, served in the U.S. Navy, was a member and commander of American Legion Post 6, a Native artist and teacher, tugboat captain, grandfather, great-grandfather, father, brother, uncle and friend to many. While in the Navy, Bill was a combat air crewman and wore his title very proudly. He was decorated with several medals for his actions in the Korean...
"It is with deepest sorrow that we announce the passing of Edward Franklin Teague, beloved father, grandfather and great grandfather who passed away in Bend, Oregon, surrounded by family, on June 6, 2021," his family wrote. "Anyone who ever met Frank knew he was a master storyteller. Frank was never happier than when he was holding court over morning coffee or during happy hour on the back of the boat entertaining everyone with his stories. Like all great storytellers the stories had a little...
William I. “Bill” Churchill Sr. died July 8 at the Wrangell Medical Center. The lifelong Wrangell resident was 88 years old. He had worked as a tugboat captain, and was well known for his carving and Native artwork. A memorial service is planned for Aug. 14 in Wrangell. A full obituary will follow in the July 22 Sentinel....
Theodore Ira Case, better known as Ted Case, has died at the age of 94. He was born Oct. 25, 1926, and died June 18, 2021. He was born in Pe Ell, west of Chehalis, Washington, and after finishing school in Pe Ell he joined the U.S. Navy, serving aboard an aircraft carrier. After World War II, he tried logging, but after nearly cutting off his wrist, he tried fishing. He moved to Point Baker, on the northern end of Prince of Wales Island, around 1950. He was successful at longlining and worked...
Family and friends are invited to a celebration of life of Minnie Evangeline (Larsen) Kalkins at 5 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion Hall. Food donations may be dropped off at 3 p.m. She died Sept. 7, 2020....
Edward “Frank” Teague, 87, of Wrangell, passed away on June 6, 2021, in Bend, Oregon. An obituary will be published at a later date. A memorial is being planned, but not finalized at this time. The retired fisherman lived in Wrangell, moving to the community after years as a truck driver working out of Anchorage....
Stephen Dale Urata, 69, died May 24 in Anchorage. Steve was born on Oct. 8, 1951, in Wrangell. He was the second son born to Jack Ichiro and Ann Haruco Urata. He is survived by his older brother Jack and younger sister Angela. He attended grades K-12 in Wrangell and excelled academically, graduating in 1969 as valedictorian. Steve was a young leader and attended the Alaska Boys State Program. A talented trumpet player, he toured nationwide with the National High School Honor Band. He attended th...
Joanne J. Roberts, a 27-year Wrangell resident, died May 13 at the SouthEast Regional Health Consortium's Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. She was 74, and died of pulmonary disease, her family said. "Wrangell was her style," her family said. Roberts moved to Alaska with the U.S. Army in 1976 and later, when she grew tired of big cities, left Fairbanks and moved to Wrangell, where she tended bar, worked aboard commercial fishing boats and hunted. "She lived a colorful life." "She was married five...
Gina Rose Smalley, 52, died at her home in Chehalis, Washington, April 9. The cause was COVID-19, the family reports. Born on Feb. 9, 1969, in Ketchikan, Gina later moved to Wrangell, where she raised her children with Jody Smalley and worked at the hospital. She moved to Sitka in 2003 and continued to work with the elderly until 2020, when she moved to Chehalis and continued to work in home health care. Survivors include her ex-husband, Jody Smalley, their daughter Danika-rae and son-in-law...
Ronald Grant "Papa" Koch, 72, who served as Wrangell Parks and Recreation director 1986-1997, died May 4 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City. In addition to his time in Wrangell, he worked as director of parks and recreation for cities in South Carolina and Washington state. Ron loved photography, fishing (even though he was a terrible fisherman, his family said), playing golf and was an avid swimmer. He participated in the 1968 Olympic trials in swimming. He loved...
Born to Les and Reita Olds in Tillamook, Oregon, on June 4, 1960, Clinton Thomas Olds was the youngest of three sons. Clint passed away on April 30, 2021, due to complications of pneumonia. He was 60. For a boy of 7, a trip to Alaska in 1967 was an adventure when he, his mother, father and two brothers embarked on the state ferry Malaspina with a short stop in Sitka and then on to permanent residence in Wrangell. Clint thrived in the small town, hunting and fishing with his family and...
Albert Daniel Nore, 79, of Wrangell, Alaska, peacefully passed away on April 4, 2021, at his home, surrounded by loved ones. Dan was born on Sept. 6, 1941, to Bert and Zona Nore at Bishop Rowe Hospital in Wrangell. During his early years the family spent summers grazing cattle for the family business, Nore's Dairy, on Nore Island (Sergief Island) on the Stikine River delta. In the fall they would load up the cattle and head back to town for the winter. Dan's lifelong love of commercial fishing...
Gordon "Gordy" Rooney Jr., born in Yakima, Washington, on Dec. 13, 1948, passed away on Feb. 25, 2021. Gordon and his family moved to Wrangell when he was a young boy. Growing up, he was raised in the Episcopal Church where he sang in the choir and was an altar boy. His hobbies included bows and arrows, and just like most boys, anything outdoors, so it is no surprise he was also a Boy Scout. A favorite pastime was hunting and fishing with his brothers and cousins. He was always active in the...
Janice Churchill, 77, passed away Jan. 27, 2021, from complications of a stroke. She had lived in Wrangell since her family moved from Tacoma, Washington, when she was 3 years old. Churchill graduated from Wrangell High School and was active in the community. She worked and volunteered at Benjamin's grocery store, the canneries, Head Start and Johnson O'Malley education programs, the Alaska Native Sisterhood and at St. Philip's Episcopal Church. "She really liked fishing and hunting. She liked g...
George Woodbury; Feb. 24, 1937, to Jan. 11, 2021. If there is one word to describe my dad, it is production. Dad was always busy doing something. He worked until his very last days. Up until the end he had plans to get better. He had so much more he wanted to do. He played just as hard as he worked, always looking for something to do. He continued to learn and was always interested. When he found something he liked, he would study it and search for the best way to do it. Always improving how...
Jeffry "Jeff" McAuliffe, 49, born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, died unexpectedly on Jan. 16. Jeff was a bold, charismatic individual who had the uncanny ability to see the good in a person no matter how bad they seemed to others. Jeff always had a positive attitude and instilled that in others in any situation. The more difficult the situation, the more his optimism shined through. Jeff was a natural leader and had an extraordinary talent for getting people to follow him without question. He...
Gerald G. "Puzzy" Holland, 101, passed away Dec. 20, 2020, at home, surrounded by loved ones, in Salem, Oregon. He was born in Calumet, Michigan, in October 1919. He was the fifth of nine children born to Anna and Paul Holland. The family resettled in Rock Island, Illinois, in the 1930s, where he met and married Rosemary Normoyle in 1942. They built a home on a little farm and raised six children, near dozens of relatives in the area. Puzzy served in the Seabees in the U.S. Navy during World...
Former Wrangell resident Suzanne Maryella Grant Leverett died Dec. 22, 2020, in Gig Harbor, Washington. She was born Oct. 28, 1940, in Wrangell, to Neil and Lillian Grant, a pioneer Wrangell family. She graduated Wrangell High School in 1958. “Suzanne Leverett, loving mother, grandmother and friend passed away in the company of loved ones at the age of 80 after a long battle with cancer,” her family wrote. She met her husband, John, at Western Washington University, where she received her teaching degree. They married in 1962 and settled in Gig...
Siguard Vernon Decker (March 3, 1999 – July 27, 2020) and Helen Francis Decker (May 10, 2001 – July 27, 2020) packed more living into their short lives than most others do. While their lives ended too soon in a tragic car accident in Petersburg, Sig and Helen's lives remain great examples of "living beautifully". Sig was born in Ketchikan, and raised in Wrangell, Alaska; he loved fishing, wrestling, basketball, music, hunting, and his friends and family. During his years at Wrangell High Sch...
Robert H. Grant, Jr., 83, a retired teacher, and longtime resident of Wrangell, died on October 21, 2020 in Wrangell, Alaska. He was born on April 19, 1937 to Robert and Catherine Grant in Dubuque, Iowa. He graduated from Loras College with a teaching degree and immediately, in 1963, moved to Wrangell to pursue his dream of teaching in Alaska. He taught High School History/Social Studies and English and later, at the end of his teaching career, he taught 6th Grade. He also worked for the Alaska...