Obituaries for December 29, 2000FRANCES DINKEL

Frances Cowan Dinkel, 92, died Dec. 21, 2000, of heart failure, at the Palmer Pioneers' Home.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, at First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla, 1375 E. Bogard Road, in Wasilla, with the Revs. David Strickland and Nicholas Brewer Jr. officiating. Mrs. Dinkel's ashes will be interred at Wasilla Aurora Cemetery.

Mrs. Dinkel was born April 29, 1908, in Deweese, Neb., to Samuel H. and Lecretia (Bures) Cowan. She attended Peru State Teachers College in Nebraska. She and her family came to Alaska in February 1937, as Matanuska colonists. She was married to Harold C. Dinkel for 59 years. Prior to moving to the Palmer Pioneers' Home, she resided in Wasilla, where she was primarily a homemaker.

She was a charter member of First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla, where she served as an elder, was a past president of the Auxiliary of the Pioneers of Alaska and Queen Regent in 1980, the Palmer Grange No. 1, Wasilla Homemakers (60-year member), the Wasilla Aurora Cemetery Association, and the Wasilla Library Association. She was a National Weather Service observer and served as 4-H superintendent at the Alaska State Fair.

She received numerous community service and special awards including the Sapphire Clover Award for 4-H Service in 1972. She was the national representative for 4-H Club Congress in Chicago in 1969, won the state 4-H Alumni Award, and was honored by the governor, borough and city proclamation on "Frances Dinkel Day." The Alaska State Legislature honored her on Jan. 27, 1995, for "50 years to community service through Northland Pioneer Grange No. 1 and Wasilla Grange No. 2 and being instrumental in obtaining area road, mail delivery and other services for the area. She invested more than 40 years of service through the 4-H as club leader and superintendent of the 4-H division of the Alaska State Fair, as well as almost 60 years of service with the Wasilla Homemakers."

Her other interests were gardening, knitting, embroidery and reading.

Her family said: "She was a lifelong educator through her service to her children, grandchildren, 4-H youth, and her secretarial and letter-writing skills for numerous organizations. She taught school until she married, at which time they did not allow married women to teach."

Surviving are children, Gene A. Dinkel, Flo Alice Tryck, Donald H. Dinkel, Joyce A. Kvernplassen, and Audrey L. Miller; 21 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Harold C. Dinkel; son, Francis H. Dinkel; and grandchildren, Lisa Dinkel and Steven B. Boyce.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla Building Fund, 1375 E. Bogard Road, Wasilla, AK 99654.

Cremation was performed under the direction of Valley Funeral Home and Crematory.