Obituary

Hattie Lea Baumgartner, 47, died June 22, 2017, in Ketchikan.

She was born Dec. 25, 1969, in Fairbanks.

She is Wooshkeetaan Auk Kwaan from Berner's Bay. She is Eagle/Wolf from the Shark House.

Her Tlingit name is Kal yesk'.

She graduated from West Valley High School in Fairbanks.

She resided in Kodiak, Dillingham, Petersburg, Klawock, Galena, Anchorage and Fairbanks, and for 30 years in Ketchikan.

In Ketchikan, she volunteered at the Ketchikan Pioneer Home every Wednesday and Friday. She also was a receptionist at Community Connections, a teacher aide at White Cliff Elementary School, and a greeter for several local businesses.

She served on the Alaska Governor’s Council on Special Education and Disabilities. She participated with Toastmasters.

She was a member of the Baha’i Faith.

She enjoyed sharing jokes, Ketchikan High School sports, piano, riding the bus, Special Olympics bowling and cooking gourmet dinners Wednesdays with Nancy. She wrote a poem, “A world without friends is like a rainbow without colors,” which won first place in the Tanana Valley State Fair.

“Hattie was a people person,” her family writes. “She shared joy and laughter with everyone. She was often asked, ‘What’s the joke of the day?’ Her positive spirit and cheerfulness uplifted everyone that crossed her path. Her earthly ray of sunshine, joy and laughter will be sorely missed.”

She was preceeded in death by her grandfathers, Thomas R. Baumgartner and Eddie D. Corpuz; grandmother, Mary Ann Sakamoto Brown; aunts, Mary Ann Corpuz, Edna Adderly and Rebecca Rawlinson; uncle, Robert Baumgartner; nephew, Warren Baumgartner; and cousins, Tammy Ruerup and Zachary Porter.

She is survived by her mother, Andriana (Don) Moss; father, James (Nelia) Baumgartner; sister, Naomi (Jarle) Michalsen, Natasha (Oscar) DeGruy, Cheyoko Baumgartner, Zeta (Joe Montes) Moss and Alex Zaidee Moss; brother, Mathew Baumgartner; nieces, Larissa (Mark) Sivertsen, Dara Otness and Kaia Michalsen; nephews, Nicholas Otness and Jordan (Keely) Baumgartner; and many other aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

A celebration of life, including food, stories and “knock-knock” jokes, will be at 6 p.m. Monday, June 26, 2017, at the Ted Ferry Civic Center.

Her remains will be interred at Bayview Cemetery.