Levia Jo Childs

Pioneering Alaska nurse and businesswoman Levia Jo Childs passed away quietly in her sleep at her Palmer home on Jan. 19. She was 79. In accordance with her wishes, no memorial service is planned.

Levia “Jo” Johnson came to Alaska as a registered nurse in October 1953 to help open the Alaska Native Hospital in Anchorage. She was a graduate of the Baylor University Nursing Program, quickly becoming a surgical nurse for Dr. Milo Fritz. For 20 years, she worked with his medical team, providing services to remote communities.

Jo, born in Walhalla, N.D., on June 2, 1930, was very proud of her Norwegian heritage. She carried these traditions with her to Alaska and shared them with her family and community throughout the years. Jo and her husband Charlie Childs met and were married in the Territory of Alaska on March 26, 1955. They built a home, family and professional career in Anchorage, until they moved to the Glennallen area in 1969. In Glennallen, she provided various medical services to the small town.

Jo is described as an industrious woman with untiring energy. As her family and the community grew, she began providing other services as well. Glennallen needed an animal feed store, and so began her second career. The feed store, named the Hay Loft, grew to include a small nursery business and eventually grew into Jo’s Flower and Gift Shop. She operated these businesses with her family’s support.

As the mother of four children, Jo knew how to get things done. She was an original working mother: nursing career, business owner, and Team Mom for children in hockey, baseball, wrestling and basketball. She worked selflessly, always doing for others. She believed deeply in her faith. Maybe that is where her source of strength came from.

That strength stayed with her. When she and Charlie decided to move to Palmer, the first thing on her agenda was to find a new church home. She found the United Protestant Presbyterian Church of Palmer that gave her great strength and comfort. Upon retirement she threw herself into new projects, new organizations and made herself indispensable once again. She loved the people of Palmer and the church community that she was part of.

She is survived by her husband Harold “Charlie” Childs, her daughter Linda Woodcock, and sons Steve Childs, Ross Childs and Paul Childs, 13 grandchildren and five-great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the United Protestant Presbyterian Church of Palmer.

Arrangements were entrusted to Legacy Funeral Homes & Cremation Services — Kehl’s Palmer Chapel.