Huge Marriages Search Engine!
Thomas Everett Gardner
Former Juneau resident Thomas Everett Gardner, 43, died March 27, 2003, after leaving for a walk on a Friday evening in the woods behind his home. His body was discovered by a jogger about one month later.
He was born Feb. 20, 1960, in Rhode Island. He was raised in foster homes most of his life. At age 17, he learned the trade of a meat cutter. He was employed by Safeway-Carrs in Big Lake, Alaska, and Anchorage; as well as Alaska Sausage & Seafood.
He is survived by his beloved daughter, Alexa Gardner; ex-wife, Jenny Gardner; step-parents, Chuck and Marie Beatty; and step-daughter, Amanda Milliman.
He was buried in Anchorage in February 2004. Any contributions for Alexa Gardner's education can be sent to Alexa Gardner, P.O. Box 110955, Anchorage, AK, 99511-0955.
Geneva Pearl Walters
Former Juneau resident Geneva Pearl Walters, 89, died March 16, 2004, in Prescott Valley, Ariz.
She was born June 18, 1914, in Tacoma, Wash., to William and Alta (Litton) Feero. She was a lifetime member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Juneau. She volunteered her time for 12 years at Providence Hospital in Anchorage. Her husband, Clarence, worked for Reeve Aleutian Airlines based in Alaska, and together they flew all over the continental United States. They were married 67 years.
She is survived by her husband, Clarence; daughters Jeanie (David) Wherry of Lafayette, Colo., Connie (Randolph) West of Salinas, Calif.; brother, John (Eleanor) Feero of Sterling, Alaska; granddaughters, Teri, Jordan and Kathleen Jones; grandsons, Jeffrey Marks and Gregory West; and several great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, March 19, at Las Fuentes Retirement Resort in Prescott, Ariz. The family was assisted by Sunrise Funeral Home and Crematory.
Joseph Graham
Former Juneau resident Joseph Graham, 55, died March 7, 2004, at his home in Bellingham, Wash., after a short battle with cancer.
He was born April 1, 1948, in San Diego, Calif. He graduated from El Cajon Valley High School and served in Vietnam from 1967-69, when he was honorably discharged with two Purple Hearts.
After serving in the Army, he moved to Alaska to work in the commercial fishing industry. He worked on the Alaska pipeline, was harbormaster in Cordova and Juneau, and retired from city government as port director in Juneau in 2003.
He was a longtime member of the Elks Lodge, VFW, Moose Lodge and the American Legion. He was an accomplished artist, and he enjoyed gardening, hiking, music, world history, community service and computers.
His family wrote, "Joe was a wonderful friend to many and will be greatly missed by all."
He was preceded in death by his parents, Virginia and Joseph Graham Sr.; brothers, Edward Graham and Norman Bucholtz.
He is survived by his wife and best friend, Lisa Graham of Bellingham, Wash.; step-sons Josh (Shawn) Herschleb of Anchorage, Alec Herschleb of Eugene, Ore.; step-daughter, Kaisa Herschleb of Eugene, Ore.; brother, Gene (Karen) Bucholtz of La Mesa, Calif.; and sister, Marianne Buse of Corona, Calif.; and numerous nephews, nieces and in-laws.
He was cremated and a memorial service will be held this summer in Cordova, where his ashes will be scattered.
Michael Aaron Nelson
Juneau resident Michael Aaron Nelson, 30, formerly of Provo, Utah, died April 10, 2004. He was born April 15, 1971.
Mike was an experienced mountaineering guide and partial owner of Above & Beyond Alaska in Juneau. He had trekked extensively in Alaska, Utah, Colorado, Washington state and the Himalayan region of India and Nepal.
At the time of his death, Mike had begun a much-anticipated, long-distance trek. On the fourth day, he and a friend made their way across Harlequin Lake, a glacial lake near Yakutat. In spite of his expertise and precautions, the ice gave way several times. Weakened from the cold, Mike had not the physical strength of pull himself out of the frigid water, but died there, doing what he loved best; at one with the natural world.
His friends said, "Michael leaves a powerful legacy of love and loyalty - he will be sorely missed."
He was a 1991 graduate of Provo High School and had attended Brigham Young University. He served in the Puebla, Mexico, mission.
Mike is survived by his father, Morris (Kathy) Nelson; mother, Kristin (Don) Wilson, brothers, Jonathan (Lorissa) Nelson, Jeffrey (Melissa) Nelson and Matthew (Camilla) Nelson.
Viewings will be held from 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 16, at Walker Mortuary, 85 East 300 South, Provo, and from 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Saturday, April 17, at the Grandview 16th Ward Chapel, 1260 West 1150 North, Provo. Services will follow at 1:00 p.m. Interment will be at Provo City Cemetery.
There will be a celebration of his life at the end of April in Juneau. Please contact Sean and Becky Janes for more information at beyondak@gci.net.
Charles D. "Chuck" Keen
Chuck Keen, a Juneau filmmaker and businessman, died Friday morning, April 4, 2003 in a veterans hospital in Seattle. He was 65.
Keen was known to the public for his long, unsuccessful effort to build a tramway on Mount Juneau, and as a documentary and feature filmmaker who brought Hollywood-style premieres to town.
"Incredible person, " said Barry Wink, a friend of 30 years. "I know he was in the limelight. There's so much that Chuck did for people. He was the kind of guy that helped somebody out and didn't want it to be known he did it."
Keen had been a logger in Washington and Alaska in his early manhood, his friends said. He operated a gift shop in downtown Juneau for the past 10 years, and ran unsuccessfully for the Juneau Assembly four times in the 1990s.
He and his wife, Karen, had been married for 46 years, said family friend Bruce Hoffman. They have one son, Michael, also of Juneau.
His family and friends remember him as a humorous storyteller and loyal man.
"When I think of him, I see him in all the facets, " said Ann Marie Good, his sister-in-law. "But I see him with all these people around him. He liked people. He could keep them laughing. He always had a story."
Some friends acknowledged he could be a fighter in the public arena when he thought he was right and others were wrong. Jim Beeson, who knew Keen in recent years, said Keen's fighting spirit probably came from his "hardscrabble days as a toughened lumberjack" and a chronicler of the Vietnam War.
"He shot himself in the foot a lot when it came to his mountain and what he was doing in Juneau, " Wink said. "He was outspoken. But the guy had a heart the size of a basketball."
Keen served in the Marine Corps for a year and was discharged for medical reasons, his family said. But it was as a civilian that he worked for many years as a photographer and filmmaker in Vietnam during the war.
Wink said Keen filmed from military airplanes and helicopters on contract for aircraft manufacturers and the government. Several times he was in aircraft that were shot down, but he wasn't injured, Wink said.
"He's got more footage than anybody's taken in Vietnam, " Wink said.
Keen also produced, wrote and filmed "Joniko and the Kush Ta Ka" a 1969 children's adventure story acted by Southeast residents. Keen produced and wrote "Timber Tramps, " a 1973 movie that featured Tab Hunter, Claude Akins, Cesar Romero, Rosey Grier and Joseph Cotten.
And in 1970 Keen made "No Substitute for Victory, " a documentary about communism narrated by John Wayne, who became his friend, Wink said.
Keen traveled around the world making documentaries, family and friends said. He filmed great white sharks in Australia and logging operations in Borneo that use elephants.
Molly Smith, artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and former director of Perseverance Theatre in Douglas, said she knew Keen as an artist and craftsman.
"I saw Chuck Keen in his element, " she said.
Smith directed a mystery movie made locally in 1995 called "Raven's Blood, " for which Keen was the director of photography. And she and Keen made a short film about the poetry of Robert Service, filmed in Skagway and narrated by the actor Stacy Keach.
"He was just a great, iconic personality, full of stories and wildness, really, " Smith said. "He was one of those people that was just obsessed with making stories. He loved to make stories through pictures, though images."
Smith recalls a climatic scene in "Raven's Blood" that showed a creek bursting with spawning salmon.
"We probably shot there for eight hours. The look on his face was pure joy because he knew how gorgeous the images were. He was a real Alaskan, a real can-do kind of guy, " she said.
Clay Good, Ann Marie's son, said he remembers going to Keen's house in the Mendenhall Valley as a child and seeing photographs of Keen with John Wayne and other celebrities.
"He was larger than life. We were amazed at how big his dreams were. He lived a big, bold life, " Clay Good said.
Among those dreams was the idea of building a tramway from downtown Juneau to the top of Mount Juneau.
"Like we all do, we want our dream, " Ann Marie Good said. "He looked at that mountain and said, 'I can get up there, ' and said the whole world should be able to see the beauty he could see."
Keen worked on the plans from the early 1970s, bought some land and received some city permits. But the project became embroiled in questions about air rights over power lines and city requirements. Keen sued the city and lost, the case eventually being reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
A tramway up Mount Roberts eventually was built by another company. Goldbelt now fully owns the tramway.
"He has a lot of friends, and he also made some enemies, politically speaking" Clay Good said. "Because he was so well traveled and got around so much, a lot of people didn't get to know him. I saw the tender side of Chuck."
Ted Vadman said Keen would let homeless people pitch tents on his property above Franklin Street, and would find them temporary work. In recent years Keen paid Hoonah youths to cut down trees, which he would sell as Christmas trees and give the proceeds to charity, Hoffman said.
Edith R. Mihelich
Former Juneau resident Edith R. Mihelich, 100, died Sept. 21, 2003, in Seattle of Parkinson's disease.
She was born in Sandon, British Columbia, and moved to Mullan, Idaho, as a child. She graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.S. in education in 1928 and did postgraduate work at the University of Washington and the University of California.
She was a teacher until her marriage to Miro Mihelich, also of Mullan. She came to Alaska with her husband and their two children on the Alaska steamship SS Baranof when Miro found employment with the Federal Bureau of Mines in Douglas. In 1954, she re-entered the work force as a clerk stenographer for the Alaska Department of Labor. She retired in 1969 as supervisor of manpower training and development programs throughout the state. She served two terms as a statewide officer for the Alaska State Employees Association.
During the 1960s, she also taught typing and business courses at night school. She found special satisfaction in helping women who were displaced homemakers develop skills and confidence necessary to find employment, her family said. Upon retirement, she lived with her sister at Lake Sammamish outside Seattle. She volunteered as a reader producing tapes for the permanent collection of the State Library for the Blind and at Bellevue Community College reading directly to blind students.
She maintained her membership in Chapter D (Juneau) of the P.E.O. Sisterhood until her death.
She is survived by her daughters, Mary Hutton of Kirkland, Wash., and Mira (Jeff) Schoening of Seattle, Wash.; and granddaughters, Kathryn Hutton of Emeryville, Calif., and Juliana (Greg) McMickle of Portland, Ore.
At her request, no memorial services will be held. The family invites your memorials of effort or money to the public-spirited Juneau event, organization, or institution of your own choosing.
George A. Jefferson Jr.
Juneau resident George A. Jefferson Jr., 72, died Oct. 1, 2003, at his home.
He was born July 17, 1931, in Red Bluff, Calif. to George A. and Irene (Caha) Jefferson. He graduated from high school in Corvallis, Ore., in 1949. He graduated from Oregon State University in 1957 with a degree in agriculture sciences.
While in high school and in college, he enjoyed playing football and was very active in 4-H club activities, spending a year as an International Farm Youth Exchange student in Uruguay based in Palmer.
He was appointed as head of the Alaska Agriculture Revolving Loan Division in 1964. In 1970, he moved to Juneau to open the Juno Maid Drive-In Restaurant and opened the Black Angus Restaurant in 1980. He most recently operated the Thane Ore House with his eldest son.
His family said he "enjoyed all of the friendly people over the many years, especially the Southeast Panhandler functions and the Taku River Valley Association Annual Game Feed. He loved playing cards and was a renowned and nationally ranked cribbage player. In earlier years, he was an avid hunter and outdoorsman."
He was preceded in death by his father and two half-brothers.
He is survived by his mother, Irene Jefferson of Monmouth, Ore.; sisters Roseanne (Bob) Toney of Salem, Ore., and Barbara Jean (Earl) Gage of Monmouth; daughter Sharon (John) Mallinger of Auke Bay; sons George H. Jefferson and John Jefferson of Juneau; grandchildren Jacki and John G. Mallinger of Auke Bay; former wives Mary Jefferson of Juneau and Janet Jefferson of San Francisco, Calif.; and several nieces and nephews.
The family asks that donations be made in Jefferson's name to a charity of the donor's choice. Local memorial services will be announced at a later date. The family can be contacted at P.O. Box 211308, Auke Bay, AK 99821.
Dorothy Irene Cary
Juneau resident Dorothy Irene Cary, 78, died Jan. 19, 2004, in Juneau.
She was born Dec. 22, 1925, in Friend, Neb. She moved to Fairbanks in 1966 and moved to Juneau in 1981. She was an industrial cook.
She is survived by her husband, Wendell Cary of Juneau; sons, Terry Cary and Scott Cary, both of Juneau; grandsons, Tyson Cary and Robert Cary, both of Juneau; and granddaughter, Sonja Cary of Moses Lake, Wash.
A private service will be held at a date yet to be determined.
