Alice Bayless

Lifelong Alaskan Alice Bayless, 92, of Copper Center died of natural causes Sept. 2, 2007, at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
A memorial service was held Saturday at the Glennallen Chapel, Mile 188.5 Glenn Highway, near her home in Copper Center.
Mrs. Bayless was born July 16, 1915, in Eagle, next to the Yukon River, to John and Ellen Roberts. She was the eldest of four children.
She started cooking at mining camps near her Franklin Creek home and became well known as an excellent cook. In 1938, she married Howard Bayless, making a merger of two Klondike pioneer families. She became a homemaker, mother and partner with her husband and her brothers in Franklin Mining Co. and later in Bayless & Roberts, a bulk petroleum and trucking company that for more than 40 years was instrumental in the construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Her family wrote: "The lady from Franklin Creek covered a lot of ground in her 92 years, and participated in a lot of development in and around Alaska.
"She loved to cook, pick wild berries and photograph everything outdoors. She also had a hobby of pastel and oil painting."
She was preceded in death by her brothers, Ellis, Richard and Robert Roberts; and her husband of 50 years, John Howard Bayless.
She is survived by her son, Bill Bayless; daughters, Ellenore Cronk and Bonnie Bayless; grandchildren, Jeff Bayless, Leah Custard, Cynthia Starnes, Rebecca Bayless, Gregory Bayless, Julie Counter and Jerry Cronk; and great-grandchildren, Deidra Bayless, Cody and Austin Custard, Skyler Cronk, Jenna Counter and Connor Bayless.
Arrangements are with Anchorage Funeral Home and Crematory.