Houston resident Nan Eder, 88, died Oct. 9, 2008 at home with her family. A private gathering of family and friends will take place at her home on Long Lake in Houston. Her ashes will be scattered and interred.

Eder was born to William and Minnie Wonderlin in Danville, Ill., on Oct. 27, 1919. She met and married her husband, John, while he was stationed in Illinois during World War II. She and her family moved to Alaska in 1953 and lived in Anchorage until 1972 when she and John moved to their cabin on Long Lake in Houston.

Her family writes, “When the family moved to Alaska in 1953, Nan agreed to stay for five years but remained for the rest of her life. She worked at her home in Houston, building her beautiful flower gardens and walking the trails with her miniature dachshunds in the area around Long Lake. After losing their house in the Miller’s Reach Fire in 1996, she inspired the design and reconstruction of her new home and began rebuilding her gardens. “She enjoyed spending the month of March every year in Maui with her daughter Judy and other members of her family,” the family continued. “She especially enjoyed the time she spent with her granddaughter and great-granddaughters.”

The family offered special thanks to caregivers Brenda Aubry and Candice Patch, to the staff and caregivers of Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska, to hospice nurse Pat Eckhoff and to the staff and nurses of the Denali and Mat-Su hospice organizations.

“All helped wonderfully to ease Nan through her difficult final years,” her family said.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John, daughter Marsh Ramsey and son-in-law Bob Alward.

She is survived by her son Pat Eder of Houston; daughter Judy Alward; granddaughter Becky Lewis; great-granddaughters Sydney and Rylee Lewis, all of Anchorage; and brother Earl Wonderlin of Hillary, Ill.

Arrangements are with Alaskan Heritage Memorial Chapel & Crematory in Wasilla.