WANDA L. CONAWAY

Palmer resident Wanda Lee Conaway, 81, died at her home June 6, 2005.

Visitation will be at 4 p.m. today, at Valley Funeral Home Chapel in Wasilla and a funeral service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday, at Matanuska Assembly of God in Palmer. Pastor Paul Riley will officiate. Floral arrangements are welcome.

A graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Monday, at Highland Park Cemetery in Medicine Lodge, Kan., where she will be laid to rest.

Mrs. Conaway was born Nov. 18, 1923, in Medicine Lodge. She came to Alaska in 1946 and lived in Anchorage for 22 years. She moved to Ketchikan in 1962 and, in 1965, made Palmer her home. From 1947 to 1962, she worked for Anchorage Bus Lines and Alaska Sales & Service. Later, she began working for the Palmer Post Office, from which she retired.

She was a member of both Wasilla Assembly of God and Matanuska Assembly of God and a volunteer at the Palmer Senior Center. She enjoyed gardening and sewing and especially enjoyed her family.

Her family wrote, "Mom was always ready to follow her family in new adventures. A honeymoon delayed by World War II brought her to Alaska by steamship in 1946. She and Dad embraced the beauty of Alaska and stayed to raise their family here. They homesteaded on the Susitna before the Denali Highway was built.

"Mom's home was always open to welcome in anyone who needed family. She had a big heart. She taught her children to love unconditionally and showed that her joy was full when she was devoted to serving others.

"Mom's relationship with God was evident in the example she set before us. She was an active member of Wasilla Assembly of God for many years, and then attended Matanuska Assembly of God in her later years. We would like to extend a special thanks to Hospice of Mat-Su and all of Mom's girls, who helped her family love her these last several months."

Her husband, Marion Glenn Conaway, and son, Franklin, preceded her in death. She is survived by her son and daugher-in-law, Billy and Susan Conaway of Palmer; daughters and sons-in-law, Bonnie and Bill Hanson of Palmer, Connie and John Warren and Lola and David Smith of Wasilla; grandchildren, Franklin Conaway of Palmer, David Conaway and Rapture Hill of Texas, Latica Whitmer and Amber Ripley of Palmer and Jesse Ripley, Matthew Moore, Joseph Moore, Jonathan Warren and Shane Warren, all of Wasilla; great-grandchildren, Joshua, Caleb and Elijah Conaway of Texas