Twila Kaiser

Longtime Juneau resident Twila Kaiser, 96, died Dec. 23, 2012, at the Alaska Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer, where she had resided since 2006.

She was born in Queen Junction, Penn., June 29, 1916, to William and Blanche Porterfield. She attended elementary school there while helping in her parents’ country store. She received her high school education in Butler, Penn. She worked for Isaly’s Dairy Specialists for three years before she attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Ill., and graduated in 1942.

In 1943, she traveled to Juneau via the Alaska Steamship Co.’s “Princess Louis” to teach for the Alaska Evangelization Society Mission in Douglas. In 1945, she joined the staff of Sheldon Jackson School in Sitka, where she supervised girls in grades five through nine and traveled throughout Southeast Alaska on the mission boat “Princeton Hall” teaching in villages.

In 1947, she married Tony Kaiser in the Northern Light Presbyterian Church in Juneau. They had met in Chicago and Tony followed her to Alaska. She taught Sunday school and Vacation Bible School at Northern Light Presbyterian Church. Later that year, they bought property at Mile 11, Glacier Highway on Pederson Hill in Juneau and raised their family. It became the base for the family business, where Twila did the bookkeeping and other tasks for keeping things running smoothly, including being the mother of three.

In 1951, she and Tony went to Beckley, W.V., for a year to mine coal. She had many stories about that experience.

She was a charter member of Auke Bay Bible Church and was very active and dedicated to the success of the church. Her involvement with the church and Echo Ranch Bible Camp gave her great satisfaction. In Palmer, she enjoyed the fellowship at Lazy Mountain Bible Church.

She enjoyed traveling with Tony to warm places during the cold Alaska winters. Hawaii was her favorite.

Her hobbies were sewing, as she had several projects going at all times, stamp collecting, admiring her milk glass collection and reciting “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service.

She always looked forward to her social visits at the Udder Culture in Juneau. Her vast list of dear friends made her long life a warm one.

Her remaining relatives are her daughter, Linda Delaney; sons, Paul and Keith Kaiser; stepdaughter, Carol Fosburg; their families; and several nieces and nephews.

Services for Twila will be this spring in Juneau. Gifts in Twila’s memory can be made to Echo Ranch Bible Camp, P.O. Box 210608, Auke Bay, AK 99821.