Gertrude Irene (Fetters) Grover

Gertrude Irene (Fetters) Grover, 85, died May 11, 2012, of natural causes at the Wasilla home that she and her husband built in 1983.

Rev. Gary Oathout will officiate at memorial services at 5 p.m., May 15 at Church on the Rock, Mile 45.6, Parks Highway, Wasilla.

Gertrude wished her ashes to be combined with daisy seeds and sprinkled at her cabin on Cora Lake in Talkeetna.

She was born on June 30, 1926, in Barnum, Minn., and graduated from Barnum High School. She took art classes from prominent artists.

At 17 years old, she received the Citizenship Award from Barnum, Minn. She also received the Home Economics and Community Education Award for 39 years of volunteer service. She was a member of the Wasilla Homemakers FCE.

Her employment included being a full-time wife, mom, grandma, great-grandma and homemaker.

She was working as a linotype setter after graduation in Carlton, Minn., when she met Earl, who ran the local gas station. They married in 1946.

She came to Alaska in 1971, and she and her husband, Earl, lived in Anchorage from 1971 to 1973, Chugiak from 1973 to 1983, before moving to Wasilla in 1983, where they have lived until the present.

Gertrude’s hobbies and interests included her family, oil and acrylic landscape painting, reading, upholstery, woodworking, gardening, sewing, making rugs on her loom, hunting and fishing (she once caught a 52-pound king salmon), canning, picking June berries, natural medicine, baking and feeding her tribe.

According to her family, “Gertrude loved music and singing.”

During a high school marching band event, seven bands lost many members to the flu. Gertrude and her sousaphone became the entire bass section and was clearly heard in the back row of the bleachers. She learned to drive a team of horses at age 9.

Gertrude loved Alaska. She spent many years as a child dreaming of Alaska after an uncle brought stories of a beautiful far away territory where animals ran wild and mountains were higher than she could imagine. As an adult she poured over Alaska Magazine and the Milepost, memorizing nearly every stop on the Alaska Highway before her first trip in 1968. Through dusty roads, three grumpy kids and a travel trailer full of dirt she was unrelenting with her zeal to reach Alaska. “Bust” was not in her vocabulary.

Gertrude flew with Don Sheldon to Cora Lake where she staked out home site property at one of his “best spots” in 1970. She and her daughters Alice (then 15) and Becky (then 9) staked out the property line through the alders using only a 50-foot electrical cord and Gertrude’s keen eye. Many years later, modern surveys found her marks in the back corners to be off by only five feet.

She enjoyed receiving compliments on her red hat.

She loved her caregivers, Barbara, Beth, Lindsie, Rachel, Heidi, Sophie and daughters, Kathy and Becky.

Surviving are her son and daughter-in-law, Lloyd and Wilma Grover of Sunsites, Ariz.; son, Ernest Grover and girlfriend, Phyllis Shafer of Palmer; daughter and son-in-law, Edith (Kathy) and Bruce Brattain of Wasilla; daughter and son-in-law Alice and Lauren Pennington of Fairbanks; daughter and son-in-law Rebecca (Becky) and Robb Smart of Wasilla; grandchildren, Elizabeth, Earl, Matthew, Coraly, Carl, Paul, Alain, Benjamin, Alex, Elizabeth, Rachel and David; and 20 great-grandchildren.

Preceding her in death was her husband of 51 years, Earl R. Grover; parents, Arthur Paul and Cora Lee Fetters; and brother, Arthur Lee Fetters.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish may contribute to the Wasilla Homemakers FCE, 1342 Bogard Road, Wasilla, AK 99654, or donations are being accepted, proceeds of which will be used to further autism research. Checks may be made out to Alice Pennington, 524 Deep Freeze Ct., Fairbanks, AK 99712.

Arrangements were entrusted to Alaskan Heritage Memorial Chapel and Crematory of Wasilla.