Daily Sitka Sentinel

Evelyn Wood

Services Scheduled Friday
For Evelyn Jean Wood, 65

Services have been scheduled for Evelyn Jean Wood, a longtime Sitka resident.
The funeral will be noon Friday at the First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Robert Hattle officiating. After a graveside service, a potluck will be held, also at the church.
A private family viewing will begin at 4:30 p.m. tonight at the church.
Evelyn died quietly and not in pain at SEARHC-Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital on Sept. 25, 2012, at age 65.
She was born Evelyn Jean  Joseph was born Aug. 20, 1947, in Juneau at the Government Hospital. Her father was  Frank Joseph Sr. of the Dakhl’aweidi clan from Klukwan and her mother was Jennie (Johnson) Joseph of the T’akhdein taan clan from Hoonah.  
When Evelyn was 5 the family moved to Tenakee Springs where they had a home in the Indian Village on the seashore. She described her childhood there as idyllic. The home, which had no electricity or indoor plumbing, was a one-room cabin with an attic which housed her parents, herself, her five older brothers and one of her sisters; two of her sisters were married and out of the home by then.
A smokehouse almost as large as the house had a clay pit for the wood and a wooden counter around the perimeter.  Fish or meat hung on racks over the pit.  A wood shed between the house and smokehouse was always full of wood as was the area under the house.
Evelyn remembered walking behind her father in the snow as a child,  following the trail his boots made to the plowed road.  The roads got plowed by the only truck in town, the oil truck, which would tow the big “V”,that would move the snow out of the road with all of the kids screaming and having the time of their lives riding on it.  The older children always watched out for the younger ones.
She attended a one-room schoolhouse in Tenakee, and helped teach the  younger children to read.  “It was a good life,” she said. Evelyn traveled between Tenakee and Angoon for her primary education. After graduating from Angoon Elementary she attended Wrangell Institute for her freshman year of high school and transferred to Mt. Edgecumbe for her sophomore to senior years, graduating in 1966.
She would shake crab to earn money for school and to purchase her own clothing – her mother was very proud of that.
She attended nursing school at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia for three years and graduated from nursing school in 1969.
She met her William Leonard Wood Jr., an engineering student, while there and they married in 1969. They had two children, William Leonard Wood III and Joyce Evelyn Wood.  They resided in Delaware then moved to Sitka where she worked at SEARHC-Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital on the surgery unit.  She was in the Out-Patient Department as a staff nurse, a head nurse on the medical floor, a part-time night supervisor and, for the last 15 years of her 25-year career, as manager for OPD. She retired in 1998.  She lived with her daughter Joy in Colorado for a year then returned to Sitka where she lived until she died.  
Evelyn enjoyed traveling in her younger years and visited most of the 50 states as well as to Jamaica, Rome and Greece.  She loved looking at how others lived and sharing how she grew up without electricity or cars.
She was a lifetime member of Alaska Native Sisterhood; a past member of the Lions Club; and was active in the Presbyterian Church. She wrote the church newsletter for a number of years and enjoyed it.
She was a crafts person and learned to knit, crochet, do beading, sew by hand, do macramé and scrapbooking. She was also an avid reader.
She enjoyed writing and compiling short stories for her grandchildren about her childhood and how she used to get wood, do gardening, go fishing and get clams.    
She was preceded in death by her parents, Jennie (Johnson) and Frank Joseph Sr.; sisters Ann Hansen of Seattle and Elizabeth Jack of Angoon; brothers Jack Joseph of Tenakee, Daniel Joseph of Tenakee, Matthew Joseph of Juneau, Harry Joseph of Sitka, Frank Joseph Jr. of Sitka, and Mark Joseph of Tenakee; niece Francine (Franky) Willis of Angoon; and nephews Andy Hansen Jr. of Kansas City, Mo.; and Michael See of Hoonah.
She is survived by her sister Bernice Nelson of Angoon,; her daughter Joyce Evelyn Wood and little Hali Wood both of Sitka, and grandson Jonathan North Wood of Anchorage; son Lenny Wood and his children; and adopted son Mike Trillo of Sitka; nieces Beverly Furse of Seattle, Brenda Jack of Anchorage, Cathy Joseph of Juneau, Darlene Joseph of Igigak, Irene Paul of Angoon and Nora Hunter of Angoon; nephews Larry Jack of Oakland, Calif., Frank (Pudge) Jack Jr. of Juneau, Mark Jack of Seattle, Bruce Jack of Anchorage, Walter Jack of Angoon, Frank Joseph III of Juneau, Larry Joseph of Angoon, Johnny Joseph and Donald See of Juneau.
Her cousins include Lorraine Casco of Haines and Ed Casco of Ketchikan, Linda Wynne of Juneau, Raymond Howard of Hoonah, Nathan Jackson of Ketchikan, Ben Didrickson of Arizona, and Ann Johnson of Sitka.