EFFIE I. GRAHAM

Former Alaska resident Effie I. Graham, 79, died Sept. 23, 2003, in Spokane, Wash., where she had lived for the past five years. She had lived in Chickaloon for more than 30 years.

Services were held Sept. 27 at Rockwood at Hawthorne Retirement Community in Spokane.

Local services will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Community Covenant Church, 16123 Artillery Road in Eagle River.

Mrs. Graham was born Sept. 6, 1924, to Andrew and Anna Anderson in Colbert, Wash.

She graduated from Mead High School in Spokane in 1942.

She graduated from Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing in 1945; she received her bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in 1949, her master's degree from the University of Colorado in 1959 and her Ph.D. from Boston University in 1972.

Dr. Graham entered the United States Army and served as a lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II. She was acting director of the Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing and assistant director for the United States Public Health Service Practical Nurse Program in Mt. Edgecumbe. She was the first professional staff person of the Alaska State Board of Nursing.

Dr. Graham was coordinator of the nursing program at Anchorage Community College. She was also assistant dean of the branch campus of the University of Chicago at Rockford, Ill., dean of the Baccalaureate Program of Nursing at Alaska Methodist University and professor of Nursing at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

She was awarded the Mildred Berry Award for Education in 1982 and the DeLapp Excellence Award in 1997 from Theta Omicron Chapter of Sigma Theta in recognition of her Alaska contributions to nursing.

Dr. Graham was a deaconess and active member of Whitworth Presbyterian Church and had donated her property surrounding Drill Lake in Chickaloon to the Covenant Church.

She had written a number of books, the most recent, "With a Dauntless Spirit: Alaska Nursing in Dog-Team Days."

In April of 1972 she married Donald Graham in Anchorage who preceded her in death in October 2001.

She was also preceded in death by two brothers and two sisters.

Dr. Graham is survived by her sister Helen Johnson of Spokane, Wash.; step-children Bruce Graham, Donna (Dawn) Graham and Douglas Graham; grandson Brian Christopher and his wife Susan Palmer-Christopher; great-granddaughter Phoebe Christopher; several nieces and nephews.