Frances Coghill, wife of former lieutenant governor, dies

FAIRBANKS (AP) -- Frances Maye Coghill, wife of former Lt. Gov. and state legislator Jack Coghill, died Wednesday.

She was 70 years old.

Mrs. Coghill, formerly Frances Gilbert, was a fifth-generation Alaskan whose family had a long history in the state before she met Coghill.

''You might say she's a chip of Alaskan history because of her parents and grandparents,'' Jack Coghill told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Her grandfather, Nels Pedersen, was a miner in the Ruby district at the turn of the century and a railroad man into the 1930s. She was born to Maye and Frank Gilbert on Nov. 25, 1929 in Fairbanks.

Jack and Frances had their first meeting, as children, when the Coghills lost the family store in Nenana to fire in 1936 and moved to Fairbanks after buying the Gilbert home.

They met again in 1946 and married two years later. They had six children and owned the Tortella Lodge in Nenana.

''She was a kind of town mother,'' Jack said. ''Sometimes she had trouble getting her chores done because everyone in town who was checking their mail said, 'Well, why don't we stop by and see Frannie?'''

Family members said Mrs. Coghill had been ill recently.

A private service for family and members of Nenana's St. Marks Church will be held Monday morning. A public service will be held at 1 p.m. in the Nenana Civic Center.