Kathryn Pyrah

Kathryn Anna Maughan Pyrah once turned down a job in Paris, France, because the location wasn’t interesting enough. Instead, she chose a U.S. State Department post in Cambodia.

After 73 years of finding the interesting things of life, Katie died peacefully in her sleep on Oct. 26, 2010, while on vacation with her sister at Disneyland. She was born in Colon, Panama, in 1937 while her dad was stationed there with the U.S. Air Force.

As an Air Force brat, Katie got her first taste of Alaska while spending several years at Elmendorf Air Force Base. She graduated from Utah State University with a degree in liberal studies and political science. She joined the Foreign Service in 1961 and worked in embassies in Cambodia and Egypt. After five years, she returned stateside and felt the pull of Alaska.

She moved to Anchorage with no clear goal or even a job and met Ted Pyrah while they were both working in youth programs for the LDS Church. They were married in the LDS St. George, Utah, temple in 1970 and lived in Anchorage for several years before the church asked them to run its welfare farm in Palmer. They moved there with their five children in 1977, and two short years later moved to a much larger farm in the Butte area where the family still lives today.

Besides her own kids, Katie helped mold hundreds of children, young women, and others through her faith — whether teaching church classes, planning service projects or roughing it on camp-outs. In her later years, she served in a church mission in Kirtland, Ohio, with Ted. Her farm life included planting flowers, gardening and running the popular U-pick business.

She is survived by her husband, Ted Pyrah, five children Preston Pyrah, Suzanne Larsen, Joe Pyrah, Janet Dinwiddie and Lucas Pyrah; three siblings Peter Maughan, Mary Maughan and Janet Coleman; and 20 grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at the LDS Church chapel in Palmer, 560 W. Arctic Ave., at 10 a.m on Saturday, Nov. 6. A service will follow at 11 a.m.