PRISCILLA BACON

Priscilla Bacon died on Oct. 4, 2003. She was born Dec. 10, 1923, in Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Margaret Taylor and Neil Stanley Miller who participated in the Matanuska Valley Colony Project, one of the federal government's "New Deal" programs. Her first winter in Alaska, in 1935, was spent in a tent, waiting for the family home to be built. After graduating from Palmer High School in 1939, she attended nurse's training in River Falls, Wisc. She met her husband Henry Dexter Bacon during Christmas vacation at a classmate's home in Mabel, Minn. The couple drove to Alaska right after the wedding ceremony in 1946.

Upon arrival in Alaska, they were both employed at the tuberculosis sanitarium in Seward. When the sanitarium closed they set up permanent residence in Palmer in a log cabin on Bailey Hill. Mrs. Bacon worked as a nurse at Valley Hospital, as a public health nurse at the Palmer clinic and worked out of the McKay building in Anchorage as nursing supervisor for the Bethel area. She also served on the board of directors for Valley Hospital. After retiring from the nursing profession, she became her husband's partner and bookkeeper in the family store -- Mat-Su Supply. She was the business consultant for interior decorating. She took her bookkeeping talents into the high school through the Junior Achievement program and was a great fan and supporter of the Mat-Su Miners baseball team. She also loved to watch dog-mushing races on TV and listen to reports on the radio, faithfully tracking each musher in the Fur Rendezvous and Iditarod Trail races through the check-points.

While her children were young, she taught Sunday School at the United Protestant Church and often organized the Christmas pageant. She sewed costumes and prepared backdrops for numerous dance and theater productions. She taught sewing and cooking when she led 4-H clubs. Her sewing and needlework entries often won blue ribbons at the Palmer State Fair. When the children were older, she was an active participant in many bible studies at the church.

She moved into the Palmer Pioneers' Home when Alzheimer's disease prevented her from carrying on her normal routine. She is survived by her siblings Tim Miller, Mardi Teale and Janell Mickell; four children Neil, Ray, Guy and Betsy and their families; including 13 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

Memorial services will be held at the United Protestant Presbyterian Church in Palmer Saturday at 3 p.m.