By Heather Lende

Memorial services were held in the Sitka Pioneers’ Home chapel and the Catholic Church last week for Betty Israelson, who died peacefully Jan.28 at Sitka Community Hospital of ovarian cancer. She was 86.

Betty and husband Arnie Israelson lived in Haines about 10 years, before moving to the Sitka Pioneers’ Home about a year ago. They retired here after a lifetime in Yakutat, where they owned and operated a fuel company and a hunting and guiding outfit on the Alsek River.

Sylvia Geraghty said her mother was "a remarkable woman – small but mighty" and that her parents "lived, loved and worked together for fifty years" in a close partnership.

Elizabeth C. Taylor was born Feb. 6, 1921 in Aberdeen, Scotland, one of five children of Charles and Jane Stuart Taylor. She earned a nursing degree and served in the British Army nursing corps from1943 to 1947, in Europe and North Africa.

She emigrated to Canada and came to Juneau in 1954 where she worked as a nurse at St. Anne’s Hospital. She and Arnie Israelson, a lifelong Alaskan, fell in love after spotting each other across the dining room at the Baranof Hotel. They married in 1957.

Israelson’s outgoing personality and can-do spirit earned her many friends and admirers. She was an active member of the Pioneers of Alaska and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. "Betty never lost her Scottish brogue, and her background was astounding, although she was very quiet about it, unless you asked her," said Doris Ward.

As a young army nurse, Israelson went from a peaceful home in Scotland to the battlefields of Europe and North Africa. She was on the beach at Normandy the day after the D-Day invasion, Geraghty said. "She said the beach was covered with bodies and that her first responsibility was to find if any of them were living. She didn’t like to talk about that at all."

Mostly though, friends remembered her for her devotion to her husband, her good cheer, and her willingness to help with whatever needed being done. Helen Streu said Israelson could be counted on to work with church fundraisers, such as the annual cookie sale. "She baked and weighed the boxes, and counted the money. I liked her a lot. She was a very nice person."

Israelson enjoyed travel. She and her husband made winter escapes to Hawaii as well as trips to Africa, Scotland, Norway, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. She also enjoyed gardening, needlepoint and crossword puzzles and was a faithful letter writer. In the Pioneers’ Home, she made ceramics and worked in the gift shop.

"She lived with cancer for a number of years, and you’d never know it. Up until three weeks ago she was having a good quality of life and enjoying herself. You can’t ask for more than that," Geraghty said.

Israelson was cremated and will be interred in a family plot in Petersburg.

She was preceded in death by a son, David Israelson; sisters Anna Hodgins and Jane Bignola; and brothers Stuart Taylor and Robert Taylor. She is survived by her husband Arnie Israelson of Sitka; son Norm Israelson of Sterling; daughter Sylvia Geraghty of Wrangell; four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Cards may be sent care of Norm Israelson, P.O. Box 606, Sterling AK. 99672. Memorial donations may be made to the Sitka Pioneers’ Home, 120 Katlian St., Sitka, AK 99835.