Katie Hurley

Katie Hurley

Olga Katherine Torkelsen Alexander “Katie” Hurley died peacefully February 21, 2021, one month shy of her 100th birthday, at Bridlemile Home in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by the love of her daughters.

Born in Juneau, March 30, 1921, to Norwegian immigrants Olaf Torkelsen and Gyda Helgesen, she grew up with her two sisters in the house her father built on 12th Street. Independent minded even as a child, she announced in kindergarten that she would no longer be called “Olga.” Talented and trustworthy, the city librarian Ann Coleman left Katie in charge of the desk at lunchtime so she could tend to her garden, and Katie’s piano teacher Carol Beery Davis (the lyricist of the 2nd verse to “Alaska’s Flag”) encouraged her to play for church services throughout the city. For a fee. She was 12.

A popular and devoted student—a teacher wrote in her yearbook, “your smile will be the secret to your success”—Katie was class salutatorian, but due to financial constraints resulting from her beloved father’s death from cancer when she was 15, she was only able to attend a year of business college in Portland where she lived with her older sister until her mother insisted she return to Juneau. At 19, a position for stenographer opened at Territorial Governor Ernest Gruening’s office. She was hired not just for her typing and shorthand skills but also for her sunny personality and inquisitive mind. Thus began her many years as EG’s confidante, assistant, and executive secretary, where her friend Bob Bartlett said she earned a “PhD at the college of Ernest Gruening,” and the start of her role as a central player in the formation of the State and its early governance. Later in life, she did earn an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Alaska Southeast.

Katie met her first husband Joe Alexander in 1942 at a USO dance. Chicago born, Joe came north with the Army Corps of Engineers to build a military encampment at Duck Creek near Juneau. After the War, she helped support his dream of running a photography studio that later became a popular fixture on Front Street. They were married in 1942, and their son, David, was born in 1946. At the governor’s and her strong-willed mother’s insistence, she was back to work weeks later.

When Gruening’s appointment as Territorial governor ended in 1953, Katie assisted him with his book, The State of Alaska. In 1955, she went to work as Senate Secretary for the Territorial Senate, a position that led to her appointment at age 34 as Chief Clerk of Alaska’s Constitutional Convention where she covered all floor sessions and oversaw staffing of all committees. Into the early hours of each morning—on her manual typewriter—she transcribed every word that was spoken during those 76 days. In the years following, Katie gave birth to daughter Susan on the day Alaskans voted for Statehood, became the Secretary of the Senate during the first Alaska State Legislature of 1959-1960, divorced Joe Alexander, married Convention delegate and legislator Jim Hurley, and had a third child—another daughter, Mary.

Following her move to the Matanuska Valley, she enjoyed the early years of her marriage organizing rummage sales for the Wasilla library, directing the children’s choir at the Presbyterian church, hosting friends, musicians, artists, statesmen and women, and hitchhikers at their beautiful home on Wasilla Lake, and later co-owning Valley Abstract and Title Company with her husband, Jim. Always, she remained politically active in local, state, and national politics.

In the 1970s, she served seven years as president of the State Board of Education, holding meetings in villages throughout the State and advocating for the establishment of Alaska Studies as required curriculum in Alaska’s schools. She resigned that position in 1978 to run for Lieutenant Governor, becoming the first Alaska woman to successfully win a statewide partisan election. When the ticket lost in the general election, she went on to become the Executive Director of the Alaska Women’s Commission, where she organized the first statewide women’s conference attended by women from every part of Alaska.

Following her divorce from Jim Hurley, and at a time when most people are considering retirement, Katie won election to the House of Representatives representing Wasilla in the 14th Alaska Legislature. Later, she served as the Chair of the Alaska Commission for Human Rights and a member of the Alaska Judicial Council. For nine years, she was a member of the Board of Directors for the Matanuska Telephone Association, becoming versed in communication technology and ensuring that MTA remain a local cooperative.

In her 80s, Katie was still dancing in three-inch heels, was engrossed in energy policy in her elected position to the Matanuska Electric Association, was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame, received the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and Humanities among other awards, served on the board of the ACLU, and rather than allow an incumbent legislator under investigation for corruption to run unopposed, launched a campaign against him. She was 85.

In her private sphere, Katie was an accomplished seamstress and knitter. She loved reading, especially newspapers, her weekly New Yorker, and biographies and mysteries. She was a collector of friends and knew how to throw a party. She loved beauty in all things: art, clothing, her lakeside view, and especially the beauty in people.

Katie’s love for music sustained her throughout her life. No gathering at her home ended without time singing around the piano. She played the organ and piano in church every Sunday for most of her life, and her last days and hours were spent listening to hymns, Irish songs, and Broadway tunes from the 30s and 40s.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her stepfather, Emil Samuelson; her sisters, Ruth McCarthy and Helen Marcum; and her former husbands.

She is survived by her son, David Alexander; daughter, Susan (Curtis) Derrera and their children, Alexandra and Aidan; daughter, Mary (Andy) Hilowitz and their children, Hannah (Mark) Pebler and Jacob; and great-granddaughter, Addison Pebler; Jim Hurley’s children, Joan (Luke) Stebbins, Michael (Cynthia) Hurley, Kathleen Cowan, and Tim (Donna) Hurley; and their children, Sean, Danny, Laurel, Robyn, and Devin.

The family is inexpressibly grateful to the friends who helped with Katie’s care in her final years; and especially to Alina Milea and Mariana Stefan and their helpers Lis, Elisabeth, and Ludmilla who looked after Katie as if she were their own mother and grandmother.

Condolences can be sent c/o Susan Derrera at 1242 Hillcrest Drive, Anchorage, AK 99503. Donations in her memory can be made to the “University of Alaska Foundation Katie Hurley Papers” in support of organizing, maintaining, and making her historic papers available to the public.

University of Alaska Foundation

1815 Bragaw Street Ste. 206

Anchorage, AK 99508

A virtual memorial service will be held via Zoom at 6:00 p.m. AST on her 100th birthday, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. To attend, please send an email to akhurleygirls@gmail.com to receive the link. If you have a picture of yourself with Katie, please send that as an attachment. Later this summer, her remains will be interred at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Juneau, right behind her childhood home.