ELFRIEDA MARVAELLA NEESE

A graveside service for Wasilla resident Elfrieda Marvaella Neese, 86, will be conducted Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Fort Richardson National Cemetery with Rev. Dan Grisham officiating. Military Honors will be provided. Anyone who wants to attend will meet at the Fort Richardson Main Gate from 1 to 1:15 p.m. Lline up behind the hearse for an escort on base.

“Our beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep on April 26 at Colony Manor Assisted Living in Wasilla,” the family wrote.

She was born in Milstone, Mont., on Sept. 18, 1923. She moved to Alaska in 1946 after serving in the Women’s Air Corps. She married Fred C. Neese on Feb. 14, 1948, and lived the rest of her life in the home they built together in Anchorage.

Elfrieda worked for the Anchorage School District as a librarian for many years. Her favorite pastimes were crocheting, pastel painting of flowers and wildlife and working in her beautiful garden. She won many awards on her painting and flowers. She loved living in Alaska with all its beauty.

According to her family, “We will miss her very much and we will always remember her by the saying, ‘If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.’”

She was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years, Fred, and daughter, Mary Young of New Jersey.

She is survived by two daughters and sons-in-law, Julie Reimann and Anton (Tony) of Wasilla and Elizabeth Gorman and Wallace (Speedy) of Spokane, Wash., formally of Palmer; five grandchildren and spouses, Michelle and Lee Prater of Wasilla, Melissa and Michael Reinhart of Wasilla, Randy Gorman of Las Vegas, Deborah and Dave Stanski of New Jersey and Tamara and Bryan Tussel of New Jersey. She is also survived by 12 great-grandchildren, Gordon, Christian, Marijah, MacKenzie, Daniel, Robbie, Hailey and Trinity of Wasilla and Danielle, Devin, Kyle and Chelsea of New Jersey; sisters, Pearl Fredrickson of Anchorage, Fern McClain of California and brother John Peterson of Montana; and many nieces and nephews.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Anchorage Chapter of the American Cancer Society.

Arrangements by Alaskan Heritage Memorial Chapel & Crematory, Wasilla Chapel, akheritage.com.