Clare Maralyn Hartley-Fischer

Lifelong Alaskan Clare Maralyn Hartley-Fischer, 66, died July 5, 2011, in her children’s arms at home in Palmer.

Clare’s family invites all who loved her to join them in a celebration of life at the Palmer Elks Lodge on Finger Lake, Saturday, July 23 at 4 p.m.

Bring a dish and some stories to share potluck style.

Clare Maralyn Hartley was born April 30, 1945, to Lee and Maralyn (Vasanoja) Hartley at the old Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Territory of Alaska. She moved to the Valley in September 1945 and attended Palmer schools. She married and started her family in Anchorage, working for a time at Pepsi Bottling Co. before moving back to the Valley. She worked in the family business — Hartley Motors Honda Shop for nearly 40 years as sales manager, retiring as vice president in 2007.

She loved spending time with friends and family above all else. She was an enthusiastic and fanatic collector of beautiful things and acquired a collection of collections over a lifetime of travels. Motorcycle trips, Alaska outdoors, tropical beaches, garage sales and casinos thrilled her. She had a generous heart, loved to help people and never met a stranger. She had friends from Miami to Arizona throughout the remote villages of Alaska. In keeping with her giving nature, she donated her body for research and education.

Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005, she fought valiantly for her survival. When her youngest granddaughter, Saylor, was born on her birthday in 2007 she said, “This makes everything I went through worth it, if I only got this one day.” She enjoyed almost six miraculous years of survival beyond her initial diagnosis.

Preceding her in death was her father, Lee Hartley.

Surviving are her mother, Maralyn Hartley of Palmer; husband, Henry “Archie” Fischer of Naknek; children and their spouses, Denise Hubbard (Lloyd), Andrea Dunnigan, Grant Dunnigan (Susie), Alice Mobley (Ian Wetherhorn) and Jamie Davis (James Wolsterman); grandchildren, Holly Varah, Taralyn Dicus, Heidi Tester, Willow, Lukas and Naomi Hubbard, Nicole Kerby, Jasmine and Reuben Tirapelli, Jeffry Pendergrass, Hannah Dunnigan, Michael and Austin Mobley, Saylor Wetherhorn and Brandon, Stormy and Summer Wolsterman; eight great-grandchildren, Tiger, Violet, Vanessa, Alexis, Aiden, Tristan, Trinity and Jaydon; sisters, Signe Wellman (Mike) and Brenda Valley; and beloved cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, one uncle and her little dog, Chewy.

Kehl’s Funeral and Cremation Services cared for the family.