MARGARET J. LARSON

Former Anchorage resident Margaret J. Larson, 94, died Dec. 29, 2003, at the Palmer Pioneer Home in Palmer. A service will be held in the spring at the Angelus Memorial Park in Anchorage.

Mrs. Larson was born Feb. 10, 1909, in Eureka, Calif. She graduated from High School in Oakland, Calif.

She came to Alaska in 1935 to join her brother, Alaska bush pilot John Moore. The family was on board the steamship the "Aleutian." The family first moved to Palmer, where they lived in a boxcar for a year before moving to Anchorage, where they lived in a tent for a short while.

Mrs. Larson was a cook in various Anchorage restaurants and the owner of the "Brass Rail" in Anchorage in the 1940s.

She lived in Anchorage until moving to the Palmer Pioneer Home, where she was a resident for the last four years of her life.

Her family said: "She was a very proud Alaskan. One of her highlights was to take her grandchildren and family on fishing and berry picking trips."

She was one of the first members of the Local 878 restaurant and hotel union. Other organizations that she belonged to include the Pythian Sisters, Pioneers of Alaska and the Central Lutheran Church in Anchorage.

She was preceded in death by her son Willard "Bill" Larson. She is survived by her daughter-in-law LaVerne Larson; daughter Patricia Ulrich and husband Eugene; grandchildren Terry Larson and wife Rhonda, Diane Kelly and husband John, Scott Ulrich, Judy Wilson and husband Curt; great-grandchildren Sean Kelly, Carrie Madriaga, Kristina Kelly, Jeremy Tidwell; great-great grandchildren Ian Kelly, Alyssa Madriaga and Kyle Tidwell; niece and nephew Donald and Ruth Moore and family.

Memorials may be made in her memory to the Palmer Pioneer Home, 250 E. Fireweed, Palmer, Alaska 99645.

Arrangements were handled by Kehl's Palmer Mortuary.