All Obituaries

On November 18th, 2019, Denzle Higgins, age 64, a longtime resident of North Pole passed away at home. He will be dearly missed. There will be an obituary and possible service information to follow at a later date. 

On November 9th, 2019 Jason Stepp passed away at home in Salcha with his loving wife and loved ones at his side. Jason was born and raised in Culverton, GA, a small town just outside of Sparta, GA. He grew up on a large farm with his grandparents who raised him with old-fashioned values. Jason married Elizabeth Smith in his hometown, and they celebrated 20 years of happiness this past September. His pride and joy were his three sons. He was a family man and loved his family very much. He...

Sean Joaquin Martines, 51 years old, was born on January 27, 1968 to Joaquin Martines and Georgiann (Mahaffy) Martines in Mount Vernon, Washington. He spent his early years in Northwest Washington and moved with his family to Eagle River, Alaska in 1976. In 1979, he attended school in Katy, Texas and graduated from Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, Colorado in 1986. While attending high school, he was an outstanding basketball player, earning a scholarship to Chadron State College in...

Rondel W. Rayford, age 52, passed away on Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at his residence in Fairbanks. A full obituary with service information will be announced at a later date. 

Loretta Lucille Bemis passed away peacefully on October 3, 2019 at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home surrounded by her family.    Born January 25, 1936 to Jack and Lucille Mann of Deer River, Minnesota she was the fifth oldest in the family of six siblings.  Loretta, along with her brothers and sister was raised by their Grandma Shannon.    She married William “Bill” Bemis on April 10, 1954 in Deer River.  She spent time working their dairy farm...

Roger A. Anderson, age 96 of Fairbanks, passed away on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home. A full obituary will be announced at a later date.

Thomas Gary Pol (Tom), 74, of North Pole, Alaska, passed away from advanced metastatic prostate cancer on the morning of October 14,2019, at his home with his wife and daughter at his side. Tom was diagnosed in 2018 with late stage cancer. In spite of being told this was a fight he could not win, he bravely stepped up to battle. Like all things in his life, he never gave up, always had hope and fought until the very end. Tom was born on January 18, 1945, in Pascagoula, Mississippi where his...

Judith Louise Pusti was born in Fountain, CO, June 5th, 1933, to a ranching family. Tom and Irene Kane had five children and a tough time through the Great Depression. This all imprinted on mom and made her the fighter and the dominant personality she became.  Judy became a bank teller in Colorado Springs and met her first husband, William C. McKnight. They had two children. Her second husband was John F. Martin. They had one child and he brought her to Alaska. The third time was a...

On September 6th, 2019, Cecil Gates, of Nenana passed away at the age of 84 surrounded by his loved ones and his wife Dixie by his side.  An obituary may follow at a later date.  Memorial Services will be at the Nenana Civic Center in Nenana on October 12th @ 1:00pm.

On September 29th, 2019, Steve Cox age 55 of North Pole was called to Heaven. His loving wife and loved ones were by his side when he made his journey. Steven Ray “Bubba” Cox was born November 6, 1963 in Sacramento, California. He worked on computers from a young age, working with his parents in their family business as well as Intel before moving to Alaska where he worked most recently at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital as an Information Security Engineer. Steve had many hobbies...