May Alice (Moore) RICHARDSON

MOORE, JOHNSTON, RICHARDSON, TAIF, YENNY, VECKER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 11/28/2015 at 15:19:29

October 21, 1924 --- October 15, 2015

May Alice Richardson was born in Dows, Iowa on October 21, 1924. Her parents were George T. Moore and May Alice Johnston Moore. She was the third child in a family of four. She passed away October 15th, six days before her 91st Birthday. She graduated from Dows High School in 1943. She graduated with a nursing degree from the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing in 1946. She then continued her education in the University of Colorado and graduated as a "Certified Public Health Nurse"; In August of 1951 she joined the staff at the Indian Hospital in Tucson Arizona. In 1953 she and a friend, Pat Taif (now Pat Yenny) heard they were building a Native Health Hospital in Anchorage so the applied for jobs there and received a letter of acceptance, but the hospital would not open for four months. They decided to take a vacation on the way to Alaska. They drove the Alaska Highway with a trailer and a car top carrier with all their possessions and her pet cat. They were well prepared. They camped, slept in her car and cooked three meals every day on the entire way. They didn't hurry - they made a true vacation out of the trip taking 3 months to complete the journey. They were the first nurses hired for the Native Health Hospital. They went to work doing clerical work before the hospital opened for patients. Alice eventually became a supervising nurse. In 1958 she decided to seek further adventures. She left her job as head nurse for the third floor. She and her friend Doris Vecker who was a dietitian travelled to the Grenfell Mission, a Hospital Complex in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. They worked there for approximately one year.

She returned to Alaska in 1959 and returned to nursing at the Greater Anchorage Health District. She married Kenneth Richardson on Valentine's Day in 1962. She worked several years at a Health Foods store. She and Ken purchased a home on Sunrise Drive where they lived for over fifty years until he passed away in 2013. She remained in her home until the fall of 2014 when she entered the Horizon House, an assisted living facility. She was a long time member of The First Presbyterian Church. She will be fondly remembered by her many friends.

There will be a memorial service for Alice at First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday November 17 at 2:30 PM. Her Ashes will be mixed with her husband Ken's and scattered at a later date on the hill at Beluga Point.

Alaska Dispatch News -- Anchorage, AK
November 11, 2015