LILLIAN RUTH RICHARDSON

Wasilla resident Lillian Ruth Richardson, 81, died of Alzheimer's disease on July 25, 2004, at Anila's Assisted Care Home, with her daughter by her side.

A funeral will be held at 2 p.m., Monday, Aug. 9, at Valley Funeral Home in Wasilla. Father Stan Allie will officiate. Interment will follow at Wasilla Aurora Cemetery.

Mrs. Richardson was born June 24, 1923 in Westmeath in Renfrew Co, a. small village that is no longer in existence, in the province of Ontario in Canada. Her father worked for the railroad and they moved many times during her childhood in Canada and Vermont. In 1941, she graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont, which she attended on a scholarship, earning an A average. She went to work for a while in the war plants, polishing lenses with her sister, Margaret. She was married very briefly to a farmer in Vermont, Phillip LaFoe.

Later, Mrs. Richardson was in the WACS with the 9940 Detachment Technician Unit during the end of World War II and met her second husband, Robert R. Beckner, in 1946 while working as a medical technician at Fort Ord, Calif. They had five children, three girls and two boys. For the first 15 years of their marriage, she was a stay-at-home mom, moving a number of times around the U.S. while her husband pursued his military career. They settled in California after his military retirement.

It was there that Mrs. Richardson worked for many years as a psychiatric technician at Agnews State Mental Hospital in Milpitas, Calif. During those years she was active in the Episcopal church, PTA and Girl Scouts. She was known for her selfless community work, the beautiful items she knitted and sewed and the delicious cakes and breads she made.

She and Edwin Richardson, both widowed, met and married in 1979 and lived for many years in Anchorage, where Mrs. Richardson became active in the Catholic charity's secondhand shop. They spent their leisure hours traveling, camping, fishing, snowshoeing and playing tour guides to visitors from the lower 48, always praising their beloved Alaska. They moved to Wasilla in the mid-1980s and Mrs. Richardson became active in teaching literacy through the Alaska Adult Education Association.

Her family wrote: "Lillian was a hardworking, loving woman and an extraordinary mother. This incredible, sweet lady will be greatly missed by all of her family and friends."

She is survived by her children, Grace Walls of Hesperia, Calif., Linda Butch of Tempe, Ariz., Peter Beckner of Honolulu, Hawaii, Charlotte Withers-Mushat of Anchorage, and Robert Beckner Jr. of Ariz.: grandchildren, Kimberly Nelson, Mark Beckner, Tony Butch, Charles Withers, Jolene Withers, Robert Rivera, Ramon Rivera and Elisha Rivera and five great grandchildren. Her husband, Edwin Richardson, and daughter, Faith Rivera, preceded her in death.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Alzheimer's Association or Hospice of Mat-Su.

Funeral arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home & Crematory in Wasilla.