Helen M. Harris
Longtime Cooper Landing resident Helen May Harris died Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001, at Heritage Place in Soldotna. She was 80.
Funeral services will be today at 4 p.m. at Kenai Lake Baptist Church in Cooper Landing. Pastor Mike Weber will officiate at the service. Burial will be in the Cooper Landing Cemetery. Viewing will be one hour prior to services at the church.
Mrs. Harris was born Dec. 9, 1920, in Richland County, Ohio. She graduated from Mansfield High School in 1938. She moved to Cooper Landing on April 4, 1946. She was the first woman to be permitted to travel the entire length of the Alaska Highway. She was a true pioneer that homesteaded in Cooper Landing.
She was a member of the Kenai Lake Baptist Church, Cooper Landing Homemakers, and Pioneers of Alaska. She loved gardening.
"She was a truly ingenious pioneer woman and very hardworking. Her family always came first before anything else. She was a very determined and strong-willed person and a wonderful mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She will be deeply missed by all her family and friends," her family said.
Mrs. Harris is survived by her daughters and son-in-law, Becky and Don Turner of Cooper Landing and Sue Johnson of Oregon; grandchildren, Jenny Spear and her husband Jeff, of Cooper Landing, Donald Turner Jr. of Anchorage, and Eric Johnson of California; and great-grandchildren, Jordan and Janelle Spear.
Memorial donations may be sent to Kenai Lake Baptist Church in Cooper Landing.
Arrangements were made by Peninsula Memorial Chapel.