Helen Magill Smith
Obituary
Lifelong Alaskan Helen Magill Smith died Jan. 4, 2008, at Bartlett Regional Hospital, with family by her side. She was 91.
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Born Dec. 18, 1916, in Juneau, to Sarah Haynes and Frederick H. Magill, she spent her childhood growing up in Juneau and Petersburg, where her mother taught school for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Her father was a marine engineer. She graduated from Petersburg High School, where she was a basketball player and cheerleader.
She worked as a teletype operator during World War II for ACS and Pan Am Airlines and for Royal Blue Cab prior to starting her civil service career in 1951.
She worked for Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Public Roads and retired from the BIA in 1979. She was a member of NARFE, Pioneers of Alaska and Juneau Garden Club. She also was a member of the Chapel by the Lake. She and her husband, Gordon, were charter members of the chapel after they moved to Auke Bay in 1947, helping to build the log chapel which still stands today. She remained a faithful member as she continued to reside at "the Bay" for more than 60 years.
Family members said she was the matriarch of her family and delighted in attending family gatherings with those she loved. She enjoyed meeting new people, music that would get her feet to dancing and flower gardens. Her sense of humor, spunk and tenacity, ability to have fun and contagious laugh will be missed, they said. She was a little woman with "true grit" who enjoyed exploring the outdoors, fishing, picking berries and especially loved spending time at Shelter Island, family said.
She is survived by four of the five children she raised, Bonnie Jo Davison and her husband, Walter, of Port Angeles, Wash., Thomas Lynch and his wife, Margie, of Chelan, Wash., Barry Burnett and his wife, Donna, and Susan Nix and her husband, Max, of Juneau; 16 grandchildren, Michael Davison, Terry O'Sullivan, Katie Smith, Stacie Dallaire, Sharon Allyn, Brian, Chris and MJ Lynch, Phillip, Paul and Mark Burnett, Heidi Gonzales, Kimberly and Judah Burnett and Jodi Van Kirk and Todd Satko; and 26 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brother, Frederick ★ Magill; husband, Joe Lynch; husband, Gordon Burnett; step son, Skip Burnett; great-grandson, Thomas Burnett; and husband, Lloyd Smith.
Per her request, she will be cremated and her ashes scattered at a later time. A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at Chapel by the Lake. Family and friends are asked to bring a written memory or picture to share that will be incorporated into a memory book.
The family requests that any memorial donations be made to the Chapel by the Lake, 11024 Auke Lake Way, Juneau, AK, 99801.