Janice (Jan) Edwards Moore

Janice (Jan) Edwards Moore

Jan died on December 24, 2019, in Palmer, Alaska at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home (AVPH), surrounded by the love of her community and family.

Janice (Jan) Edwards Moore born Forsyth, MT February 13, 1924, to Lee Nichols Edwards and Blanche Rosemond Burdan. Jan met her first husband Denton (Denny) Rickey Moore while she worked as a nurse at the veteran’s hospital in Seattle. Denny was recovering from injuries he sustained while engaged in the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. Soon after their marriage Denny and Jan decided to move to Alaska. They had an interest in homesteading and building a fishing lodge; this interest, and the opportunity for work, brought Jan and Denny to Clarks Point cannery on the Nushagak River. They had their first of six children while living as winter watchmen and schoolteachers. Jan was not able to get the medical help she needed at Kanakanak hospital in Dillingham or the cannery doctor at Clarks Point, so she delivered this first child on her own in the schoolhouse. This brief story illustrates what kind of woman she was. From Clarks Point they found themselves on Lake Illiamna settling onto a homestead eight miles outside of the village of Kokanok. There, Jan served as a postmaster and magistrate. She put her training as a nurse to work, helping deliver babies and tending to those who were ill or injured. She took care of the needs of daily life on a remote homestead where travel was either by boat or dogsled with mail delivered by bush pilot Oren Hudson. While on the homestead four additional children were born. In 1959, she and Denny moved the family to the village of Naknek, where she continued to practice her nursing skills. She and Denny also started a small newspaper, participated in setnet and driftnet commercial fishing, salted salmon by the barrel (1/2 tierce), built and operated an independent cannery, and helped with the start of a fisherman’s union. Her sixth and final child was born while they lived in Naknek. When Denny developed a heart issue the family moved to Seattle. Within a few years, they separated and divorced, but Jan retained the fishing rights to the setnet operation. As a single woman and mother of six, she continued her career as a nurse and returned to Naknek every summer, just as the salmon do. She worked the gear tirelessly with her children and eventual grandchildren. Through every season she embraced the freedom that fishing brought, but never hesitated to help where and when she could. She insisted that when help was needed by a neighbor or stranger, help would be given. Jan was well-liked by her peers, friends, neighbors, and community. She remarried in 1970 to George Walker who was a loving and caring man. This relationship came to end in 1976, but they remained close friends until George’s death many years later. Jan returned to Alaska in 2000 and joined her son who lives in Palmer. She lived independently in senior housing until 2016 when at the age of 92 she took a room at the AVPH. She immediately put herself to work involving herself in the resident council and throughout the community of AVPH. A friend of hers recently remarked, “Everywhere she went she always made herself helpful”. We love and miss you Mom and we will catch you on the next tide.

Jan was preceded in death by her parents, her 3 younger sisters, a daughter Deborah McClain, a granddaughter Rachel, and a grandson Alex.

She is survived by daughters Katrina Adams, Priscilla (Lynn) Benfield, Elizabeth Moore, Virginia (Jenny) Moore, son, Harry Moore, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Memorial service to be held at Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, Alaska on January 25, 2020 at 1:30 pm. Please come, all are welcome, we will put the coffee on.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to one of the following favorite charities. Jan was a big supporter of the “Friends of Palmer Library”, “Palmer Senior Center”, and Veteran support programs.