Meryl Long, 1937-2009

By Heather Lende

Friends and family said final goodbyes to longtime resident Meryl Long Friday at Jones Point Cemetery.

Long died Feb. 9 in the Anchorage Pioneers’ Home of complications from diabetes. “It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, and Jeff Stout played taps,” said daughter-in-law Pam Long.

Meryl Long had been in residential care in Anchorage about three years.

He came to Haines from Chico, Calif. in 1979 as a single dad with his sons.

“He loved Alaska, and always wanted to come. After my mom and dad divorced, he said, ‘This is my chance,’” Terry Long said. “He was a great dad. Really involved. He took us bow hunting and camping and there wouldn’t be anybody there but us.”

Meryl Long was eventually joined in Haines by his brother and mother.

He worked for Eagle Transport driving a truck, and later at Long Island for Klukwan Inc. as a “cat skinner,” or bulldozer operator on a logging crew. He also hunted, fished, and hung out at the Bamboo Room, Terry Long said.

Long was born Oct. 12, 1937 in Exeter, Mo. to Jesse and Hattie Mae Long. He had a brother, Marion, and a sister, Myrna Dean.

The family left Missouri for California in a Model T, settling in Tulare, Calif. Meryl graduated from high school, joined the Army and went to Fort Hood, Texas where he served as an MP. He married and raised a family in Chico where he owned a cleaning business and was a volunteer fireman, Little League coach and men’s softball coach.

In Haines, Long was a familiar sight with his easy smile, cowboy hat, and turquoise-blue “Fat Boy” Harley Davidson.

 “I’ve never seen a bike with more Alaska bling – bear heads, eagles, and I’m sure he found a way to attach his collected beads,” said son Brayton Long. He also made useful and artistic objects out of diamond willow.

At the cemetery, Brayton Long described his father as simple, but not simple-minded. “Not only could he create objects with his hands, fix what was broken, he could write, and was inventive and industrious with his time.”

Meryl leaves fiancée Freddie Erickson in Anchorage. They met at Providence Hospital Extended Care and continued their courtship at the Pioneers’ Home. “It was the big love story of the home. On his first date he had the staff set up a smaller room with a table and chairs and he got take-out Chinese,” Pam Long said.

Meryl ordered one of each item on the menu, so the restaurant thought it was a prank, she said. Once assured it was not, they delivered the huge meal, which Long and Erickson shared with the rest of the home’s residents.

He was preceded in death by son Darin, and is survived by sons Terry of Cordova and Brayton of Chino Valley, Ariz., adopted daughter Lisa Long of Juneau, brother Marion of Haines, sister Myrna Dean of Missouri, granddaughters Amber Long and Alicia Vance, and grandsons Dayton, Jeremiah, and Gavin Long as well as great-grandchildren Julia, Skyler, Kiersten, Jacob, Sophia, Grace and Ari’el Long.