MayBelle Opel

Wasilla resident MayBelle Opel, 85, died May 14, 2010, at home with family.

A service will be held Thursday at Ft. Richardson National Cemetery at noon.

MayBelle was born Jan. 22, 1925, in Kansas City, Mo. MayBelle and her husband Bill, who was in the Army for 20 years, were then stationed in Alaska in November 1968 from Louisiana. They lived on Fort Richardson from 1968 to 1970, then moved off base to Muldoon from 1970 to 1973, and then moved to Eagle River from 1973 to 1986.

MayBelle was self-employed from 1966 to 1980. Her children often assisted with her business, especially while her husband was overseas during the Vietnam War. She and Bill retired in 1986 and moved for a brief time to Washington on the “Olympic Penn.” Then they returned to Alaska in 1988 and bought a house in Wasilla.

MayBelle loved and had animals of all kinds and most recently shared the couch and recliner with Sunny, one of her most favorite cats.

Her family wrote: “MayBelle and her husband Bill had a longtime favorite pastime which was her cabin at Donkey Creek. Together they built and enjoyed the cabin starting in 1974, which she continued to enjoy until recently. Much of her family and friends spent time together there. Some summers spending more time at Donkey Creek than at her other home in Wasilla. At times in the winter, ‘There was so much snow that you could drive the snowmachines completely over the top of the cabin,’ MayBelle once said.”

She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Harley; son, Kenneth; and his daughter, AmberLee; brothers, Jack and James; nine nephews, four nieces, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Arrangements were entrusted to Legacy Funeral Home-Kehl’s Palmer Chapel.