Marie D. Strandberg

Alaska pioneer homemaker Marie Dorothy (Nordstrand) Strandberg, 90, died peacefully of natural causes at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer on March 27, 2010.

Marie Nordstrand was born in Houston, Texas, on April 5, 1919, and was the oldest of 13 children born to Arthur M. and Mabel (Teichman) Nordstrand.

Her eldest sister, Mary (Nordstrand) Sharpless, remembers when Marie left Houston for a trip to Seattle. Marie was only 8 when she boarded the train for this exciting, but scary, trip to San Francisco. This is how Mary remembers that day: “Marie was to visit Auntie Martha for one year and then return to Houston. As it transpired, the Great Depression of 1929 interrupted the plan. Marie’s visit was extended each year. I believe Auntie Martha was, at that time, fluent only in Norwegian — which accounts for Marie’s fluency in Norwegian at an early age. The plan was for Marie to travel to San Francisco, where she would be met by Uncle Sigvald, who had traveled down from Seattle to escort her from San Francisco back to Seattle. Seattle is a long way from Houston. As Marie left, I stood by the gate crying. My big sister was going away and she would be gone for a very long time. When Marie stepped off the train in San Francisco it took quite some time for Uncle Sigvald to find her. I am sure Marie was frantic; however, the note pinned to Marie’s collar was soon observed by officials and she and Uncle Sigvald were finally united, whereupon they proceeded to Seattle and Auntie Martha. They arrived at the Seattle station and Auntie Martha waiting for them with a big, happy smile.”

Marie remained with her aunt and uncle until after she graduated from Queen Anne High School with excellence in grades and knowledge. She met her future husband, E. Odin Strandberg, while he was attending the University of Washington and she was attending business school in 1938 and 1939. Courtship led to marriage and Marie, with proper escort, traveled to Alaska on the Alaska Steamship Line to Seward and the Alaska Railroad to Anchorage, where she was married to Odin on Aug. 10, 1939, in the David and Jenny Strandberg family home on West 4th Avenue where the Captain Cook Hotel is now.

From there, Marie began her exhilarating life married into a Swedish-American gold mining family and Alaska became her lifelong home. Soon after marriage, she and her husband flew via small plane with well-known bush pilot Kenny Neese, taking off from the Delaney Park Strip (originally the Anchorage golf course, doubling as an airstrip). The flight through Rainy Pass in the Alaska Range to Folger in the Cripple Creek Mountains Northwest of McGrath was her first airplane flight.

During winters, Marie and her husband resided in Anchorage. Their four sons — Edward Odin Jr., Sigvald John, James Stephen and Baerent Rudolph — were born in Anchorage between 1941 and 1956. Marie was a traditional homemaker, running households in Anchorage during the winter and at the mining camps in the summer. During the World War II years of 1942-43, Marie and her husband lived in Seldovia, where he worked in the strategic metal chromite mine at Red Mountain.

In 1957-58 Marie and Odin and their sons moved to Fairbanks for two years, where Odin completed his mining engineering degree at the University of Alaska. After the family mining operations shut down in the early 1960s, her husband’s business ventures and later employment as city engineer took Marie and Odin and their three younger sons to Soldotna.

In the early 1970s, Marie, Odin and Baerent returned to Anchorage to reside, where Odin became the municipal building official. In the early ’80s Odin and Marie resided in Whittier, where they operated a charter business with the motor vessel Blue Seas on Prince William Sound. In 1987, they moved to Wasilla, where they purchased their retirement home.

Mrs. Strandberg and her late husband baptized their children into the Christian faith at the Anchorage Central Lutheran Church, where they were members until the 1960s, nurturing them with intellectual and spiritual guidance throughout their family life.

Marie, Odin and Baerent were later members of Christ Lutheran Church in Soldotna.

Marie was a homemaker in every sense of the word, maintaining a hospitable family home with traditions that were a comfort to her family and friends over the years. Marie was artistic, had beautiful penmanship and was a skilled seamstress and knitter. She loved cooking, baking and gardening. For years she maintained correspondence in Norwegian with relatives in Norway. Marie loved to read and had a special love of poetry. She was the glue that kept the family together and in touch over the years.

For several years in the 1970s Marie enjoyed working at an Anchorage fabric store, and while living in Soldotna she was a regular elections worker. Over the years she assisted her husband with family business accounting, timesheets and payroll. She was a member of the Alaska Homemakers Association while living on the Kenai Peninsula, and she and her husband enjoyed Pioneers of Alaska and Sons of Norway meetings in their early Anchorage years.

Her family cherished her devotion to her family, resolve, talent, wisdom, humor, kindness and convictions. She always put her family first and felt blessed to have them. She was a graceful lady combining a genteel spirit, strength and character of a pioneer Alaska woman who held her own while guiding her household of five men.

Following the death of her husband, Mrs. Strandberg became a resident of the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer in May 2003. There she appreciated the kind and professional care from the Pioneer Home’s wonderful staff and enjoyed visits from her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends. Her family relied on her to recall dates and facts of her and her husband’s lives, and places and people she knew, many of whom have been prominent in Alaska history. They enjoyed her reflections on her life of many adventures and challenges as Alaska transitioned from territorial status into statehood. Always modest about her own accomplishments, Marie gave recognition to her hard-working in-laws and family and accomplishments of other Alaskans who contributed to Alaska’s infrastructure and history. Her family celebrates her life in Alaska as a daughter-in-law of pioneers, and who became a pioneer Alaska woman in her own right.

Mrs. Strandberg was preceded in death by her parents Arthur M. and Mabel Nordstrand, and her uncle and aunt, Sigvald and Martha Nordstrand. In 2000 and 2002 respectively, she lost her first-born son, Edward O. Strandberg Jr., and her husband of 63 years, Odin, both to cancer.

She was predeceased by two siblings who died in infancy, as well as siblings Arthur M. Nordstrand Jr., Symova Jean (Nordstrand) Baxter, Sigvald Ernest Nordstrand, Christian Elray Nordstrand and brothers- and sisters-in-law William Strandberg, Theodore Strandberg, Larry and Olga (Strandberg) Doheny, Harold and Barbara (Carlquist) Strandberg, and Genevieve “Missy” (Strandberg) Crawford.

He is survived by daughter-in-law Karon Strandberg and grandchildren Edward Odin Strandberg III (April), Heather (Strandberg) Hartman (Chris), and great-grandchildren Edward Odin IV, Joseph S., and Olivia Strandberg, and Sarah, Robert and Naomi Marie Hartman; and son Sigvald (Arlene ) — all of Fairbanks; grandsons Sigvald J. Strandberg Jr. and Neil M. Strandberg, both of Nome; son James S. Strandberg and girlfriend Fariba Steele, James’ former wife, Emiko S. Strandberg, of Anchorage; grandchildren Roy T. Strandberg (Stephanie) of Fairbanks, and Erica (Strandberg) Pohl (Matthew) of Corvallis, Ore.; son Baerent R. Strandberg (Yekaterina), and grandson Marcus Strandberg of Wasilla.

Mrs. Marie Strandberg is also survived by her siblings in Texas, Mary (Nordstrand) Sharpless, Angela (Nordstrand) Smith, Martha June Nordstrand, Carl H. Nordstrand, Nell (Nordstrand) Cox (Jim), Victor Nordstrand (Anne), and sister-in-law Mrs. Ted (Margaret) Strandberg of Kirkland, Wash., and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews residing in the Lower 48; and paternal cousins in Norway.

A celebration of Marie Strandberg’s life will be held at the Wasilla Best Western Lake Lucille Inn on May 8 from 2 to 6 p.m. At a summer date her ashes will be scattered over Candle Creek in the Candle Hills southwest of McGrath, Folger and Colorado Creek in the Cripple Mountains northwest of McGrath where she and her late husband Edward Odin Strandberg resided during the placer mining seasons of 1939 through the early 1960s, except for the War years.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the Residents Memorial Fund, Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home, 250 E. Fireweed Avenue, Palmer, Alaska 99645, the American Cancer Society, or a favorite charity. Arrangements were made by Valley Funeral Home and Crematory in Wasilla.