LARRY SHEILE SR.

Wasilla resident Larry Sheile Sr., 77, died of complications from a long illness on Jan. 8, 2004, at Valley Hospital in Palmer. A private burial will be held by his family here in Alaska.

He was born Nov. 23, 1926, in Evansville, Ind. He moved to California when he was 6 months old. He served three years in the Army during the World War II, and he served four years in the Air Force during the Korean War. He worked for Grants Pass Plywood, in Grants Pass, Ore., from 1959 to 1961. From 1961 to 1988 he worked for Elk Lumber Company/Boise Cascade in Medford, Ore., then retired. He found it hard to sit still so went to work for The Ashland Daily Tidings in Ashland, Ore., and worked there from 1990 to 1998 when he retired for a second time.

Mr. Sheile met Mary Martin in California in 1949. They were married Dec. 1, 1951. They left California in 1959 heading for Alaska, and stopped on the way in Oregon and lived there for 41 years, before finally making it to Alaska in 2000.

His family said, "He made many friends in his journey through life and was loved by all. He was a loving husband and a father who will be dearly missed."

Mr. Sheile loved to go fishing and collecting knives. He relaxed by doing poster art and loving his many dogs throughout his life.

Mr. Sheile is survived by his wife of 52 years, Mary Sheile; son and daughter-in-law Larry and Darlene Sheile Jr. of Eagle Point, Ore.; daughter and son-in-law Kathy and Frank Allen of Medford, Ore.; daughter and son-in-law Colleen and Curtis Lucas of Wasilla; brother and sister Everett and Reba Pearce of Santa Ana, Calif.; nine grandchildren and two great- grandchildren.

Arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home & Crematory of Wasilla.