Colonist's legacy lives on

For some original Colonists, picking up and moving to Alaska was a large, life-changing event. For Emmy Sophie Hansen Havemeister, is was only a tiny chapter in the large volume of her life.

Emmy passed away March 14 with her family by her side after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease. Her legacy will never die, however.

"She was such a determined soul, and she made everybody around her just as determined," recalled her daughter, Helen Riley. "She wasn't afraid of anything."

Emmy Sophie Hansen Havemeister was born on April 25, 1904, to Gustav Heinrich and Dorathea Gade Hansen in Lunden, Germany.

Growing up, her determination was apparent. She was an accomplished piano player who provided music for many of the German silent movies of the era, and she wanted to pursue an opera career -- against her father's wishes.

"Her grandfather was an accomplished and respected man in Germany, and being an opera singer wasn't considered an acceptable profession," said her daughter, Annie McCorkle. "Now, it is considered a great profession."

With her talent, Emmy dreamed of entertaining people in America. But getting to America was a major hurdle, and one her father did not want her to cross. At the age of 19, however, she set out for the United States along with her two brothers.

She settled in Chicago and worked in a candy factory for a time. Then, she became a housekeeper for a Jewish family. During that time, she met Arnold Havemeister and on May 8, 1927, they were married. He, too, was a German immigrant.

While living in Chicago, their first child -- Helen Riley -- was born. The family felt a need to leave the city, and settled in Michigan, where they worked on a farm. In 1935, though, the spirit of Alaska called, and the Havemeisters packed up and headed north. It was the opportunity they were looking for -- to own their own farm.

"She had already come from Germany to America, so why not come from Michigan to Alaska?" Riley asked. "They were filled with adventure and wanted to come farm in Alaska. With the Depression, this was a great opportunity."

At the drawing for land, Arnold drew a lot in the Butte.

"He said he wasn't going there and farming with those rocks and that river," Riley said. "So they gave him a plot on Bogard Road."

That plot is still being farmed today, by their son, Bob Havemeister. Emmy and Arnold worked hard to establish the farm on Engstrom Road, off Bogard.

Then, tragedy struck. Arnold died in 1942, and Emmy was alone on a dairy farm, raising three young children. Never was her determination more defined than in the years following Arnold's death.

"It would have been so easy to pack up and go back to Chicago with her family, or back to Germany to her parents," Riley said. "I have to admit, that's probably what I would have done. But she had to finish what Dad started, and that's what she did. She got stomach ulcers because of it, but leaving wasn't an option, she thought."

If being alone was wearing on Emmy, she didn't show it to her children.

"We all worked, and that's the way it was," McCorkle said. "Mother didn't have to tell you what to do in the morning, you knew what you had to do that day.

"She was so particular. On Saturdays, I would clean every room in the house, and once, I forgot to do the window sill in her bedroom. She made me tear everything out of the room and start over again," McCorkle said. "She knew how she wanted it done, and that's the way you had to do it."

Riley and McCorkle said the family benefited from the help of the neighbors, the Kirchers. They, too, were Germans, and they pitched in to help Emmy with the farm.

While farming and family consumed her life, Emmy never took another husband.

"Nobody ever would have been good enough to take the place of her husband," Riley said.

"Heck, I wasn't even good enough for her daughter," said Paul Riley, Helen's husband who founded the Wasilla Assembly of God and served as the pastor there 50 years ago.

"No, but she always took your side against Helen's," McCorkle said with a laugh.

Times were tough, but the children didn't realize it because of the strong work ethic their mother instilled in them.

"Nobody else had it easy, either," Riley said. "I was thrilled to be out in the field working. We all worked on what needed to be done. One Christmas, the Shriners brought us a box of food and a gift for every child, and to this day, I remember the gift I got -- a little compact of makeup with an Eskimo scene engraved on it."

Emmy never drove, either. She relied on neighbors to pick her up if she was walking down the street. Once a year, she made a big trip to town to pick up "just the staples," McCorkle said.

While she was gone on that annual trip, the children took advantage of the free time to plant flowers around the house. That wasn't considered part of their daily farm chores, Riley said, because "you can't eat the flowers."

"We would work quick and plant the flowers to surprise her when she got home from town," McCorkle said. "We'd plant the flowers and fill the wood bin to the ceiling so Mother wouldn't have to do it."

After Bob Havemeister, the youngest child, got out of school, he was given the family farm. Today, he has over 100 head of cattle on the farm, and he has run it since 1961.

"Even as she fought the Alzheimer's, she thought about that farm. She would ask us, 'Is Bob still farming that land?' and we would tell her that he has over 100 cows on the farm. She never lost interest in the farm," Helen said.

After her life as a farmer drew to an end, Emmy worked as a nanny for a family in Palmer, teaching the daughter how to play piano. She never left the Valley, even though moving may have been the easiest thing to do during some of the tougher times.

"She loved the Valley. She said there was no place in the all of the world like Alaska, and the Valley was the best place in all of Alaska," Riley said. "This was her home."

For 40 years, she lived with Paul and Helen Riley, off and on.

The Rileys' house sits about a mile away from the family farm on Engstrom Road.

"She was a part of every activity we did, every day. One of us had to be home to take care of her. Yesterday [Sunday] was the first time in a long time we went to church together. It's hard for us because she was such a big part of our daily lives," Riley said.

Emmy Havemeister is survived by her four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her impact on the community extends far beyond her family, however.

"She wasn't the president of anything or one to win awards or anything, but what she did made her special," Riley said.

Services were held yesterday, with Paul Riley officiating. The family is planning a private burial.