Ermalee Hickel
| Ermalee Hickel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| First Lady of Alaska | |
|
In office December 3, 1990 – December 5, 1994 |
|
| Governor | Wally Hickel |
| Preceded by | Michael Margaret Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Susan Knowles |
| First Lady of Alaska | |
|
In office December 5, 1966 – January 29, 1969 |
|
| Governor | Wally Hickel |
| Preceded by | Neva Egan |
| Succeeded by | Diana Miller |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Ermalee Strutz September 11, 1925 Anchorage, Territory of Alaska |
| Died | September 14, 2017 (aged 92) Anchorage, Alaska |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Wally Hickel (1945–2010; his death) |
| Children | Six |
Ermalee Hickel (September 11, 1925 – September 14, 2017) was an American public figure and philanthropist who served as the second and seventh First Lady of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and again from 1990 to 1994. She was the wife of the former Governor of Alaska Wally Hickel and one of the last members of Alaska's generation of pioneer political families.
Hickel, the youngest of six children, was born Ermalee Strutz in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 11, 1925, to Aline and Louis Strutz. Her family, who had arrived as pioneers in Anchorage in 1917, settled in a small cottage-style house located at Ninth Avenue and P Street near the Cook Inlet. The home still stands, as of 2017. The family raised cows on a piece of nearby land now known as the Delaney Park Strip. Hickel's father, a United States Army sergeant, had been stationed in Alaska. Her family was also affiliated with the now defunct National Bank of Alaska.
Strutz was the editor of her high school newspaper, as well as an usher in the Fourth Avenue Theatre. She later found work at the Port of Anchorage's seafood cannery before becoming a secretary at Fort Richardson, which is now part of Elmendorf Air Force Base, during the early 1940s.
Ermalee Strutz met her future husband, Wally Hickel, soon after the sudden death of his first wife, Janice, from an infection in 1943. Wally Hickel had married Janice Cannon in 1941. Janice Hickel had been friends with Ermalee Strutz. Hickel, now a widower with a young baby son, remembered that his late wife had praised Strutz. By coincidence, both worked at Fort Richardson, where she was a typist and secretary and he was an aircraft inspector. Wally Hickel soon met her on Fort Richardson. The couple married on Thanksgiving on November 22, 1945, in a Catholic wedding ceremony held at Holy Family Church, located on the site of the present-day Holy Family Cathedral. In addition to Hickel's son, Ted, from his first marriage, the couple had five more sons. They eventually settled in Anchorage's Turnagain neighborhood near Fish Creek.
...
Wikipedia