10/28/1906 - 4/27/1994
Wasilla resident Lee O. Turner, 87, died peacefully from pneumonia
April 27 at home. There was no
funeral. An open-house tribute was held
at the Palmer Senior Center for those who wished to
remember him. He was
cremated and part of his ashes were placed in the Hatcher Pass area. The
remaining ashes were buried beside his parents in Antioch Cemetery near
Portland, Ind.
Mr. Turner was born Oct. 28, 1906, to Lot and Maud Trostle Turner in Jay
County, Ind., where his
father was a storekeeper and farmer. He
graduated from high school in Bryant, Ind., in 1925, and
from Ball State
Teachers' College in Muncie, Ind., in 1929. Mr. Turner was married to
Berneice Macy
with whom he had three children. He and Berneice later
divorced.
Mr. Turner was a track and basketball coach in five Indiana schools and
two Ohio schools until 1953. In 1954, he married Beatrice Gilmer and they
taught school in Wyoming, Utah, Washington state and Michigan. In 1958, he
built a camper behind his Jeep and drove up the Alaska Highway with his
wife and three small children to teach seventh and eighth grades and to
develop the first basketball team in Seldovia. The Turners came to the
Matanuska Valley in 1960 where Mr. Turner coached basketball and taught
science and history at Wasilla High School. He was very proud of his
basketball team, which won the Class C tournament in 1962. He and
another coach were instrumental in starting competitive cross-country track
in Alaska. Mr. Turner transferred to Palmer High School in 1964, where he
enjoyed teaching
history until his retirement in 1971. In 1965, he built
a red A-frame house in the Fishhook area beside
the Little Susitna River
near Independence Mine ski area, where he loved to ski. He served on the ski
patrol for many years. It was his longtime dream to see a good ski
resort at Hatcher Pass. After
successful hip replacement operations in
1974, he ran his sled-dog team until age 75, helping to
establish a
Palmer sled-dog club. His last carpentry project was to build a dog sled. As
a senior citizen
in 1984, Mr. Turner won the 50-yard freestyle race at
the senior swim meet in Anchorage as the oldest
contestant in the
59-80-year- old class. He will be remembered as founding president of the
Palmer
Senior Center.
Memorial donations may be sent there. His family said: "He loved life, sports, dogs, other animals, his family and friends. He had a quick wit and great compassion and will be dearly missed."
Mr. Turner is survived by his wife, Bea, of Wasilla; sons, Tom, Pat and Jerry Lee, of Michigan; daughter, Peggy Ann Slingland of South Carolina; sons, Jim Lot and Jim Lin, and daughter Dena Lee, all of the Fishhook area; 10 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; sister, Hilda Rieke of Billings, Mont.; and brother, Woodrow of Portland. He was preceded in death by his sister, Beulah Cassel, and brother, Harry.
Arrangements were handled by Kehl's Palmer Mortuary.
Anchorage Daily News, AK; April 29, 1994
Contributed by
Nancy K
Buried in Antioch Cemetery