Julia "Annette" Gardner

Longtime Alaskan Julia “Annette” Gardner, 74, died Oct. 7, 2011, at home in Wasilla after a lengthy illness.

Annette was born Oct. 9, 1937, in Newville, Ala., the youngest of four sisters.

In 1957, she met and married Leonard “Tiny” Gardner. They moved to Alaska the same year, arriving with little money but big dreams. In 1960, Tiny and Annette started Hilltop Sales and Service, a towing and wrecking business that later became Hilltop Recycling in Chugiak.

Over the next 37 years, they worked side-by-side to build their business and their family, raising six children through some lean times. Annette loved her family and sacrificed some of life’s comforts to make sure they had everything that made them happy.

In Annette’s house there was always a hot meal cooking, a fresh pot of coffee brewing and lots of love for all who stopped by to visit. She raised six kids, but there were dozens who called her mom.

After she lost Tiny in 1994, she continued working until retiring in 2005 for some well-deserved and long-overdue rest and relaxation. Annette traveled in her last years, visiting relatives and friends. She spent time reading, painting and doing crossword puzzles.

Annette is survived by her sons, James, Samuel, Robert, George and Benjamin and their spouses; daughter, Marjorie, and her fiancé, Charles Doubek; sisters, Betty Busbee, Marjorie Jones and Willierae Coursey; and some she enjoyed the most, her 18 grandchildren, who gave her 13 great-grandchildren.

She will be missed by many, but forgotten by few.

Services are at Witzleben Family Funeral Home at 1707 S. Bragaw St., Anchorage, with a viewing at 11 a.m., and the funeral at noon, Oct. 15.