Annie Elizabeth Stiving

1937 - 2019

Annie Elizabeth Stiving, age 81, passed away peacefully in her own home in Anchorage, Alaska, on Feb. 17, 2019. She was born on March 26, 1937, in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, to George and Dorothy Jones. As a lovely young redhead in Portland, Ore., she met and married a silver-tongued military man, Lawrence Connolly, and together they had six children, all of whom inherited their mother's humorous nature and love of adventure.
Annie was a pioneer and a pistol, moving to Fairbanks in the late 1950s, when Alaska was still a territory. She settled in Anchorage with her family in the 1960s, where she worked as a legal secretary and greatly enjoyed bowling and flying, earning her private pilot's license in the late 1970s. Travel was integral to her personal philosophy, and she did so as often as possible. From these travels, she carried stories with her and shared them willingly with a comic twist. She was a collector and a giver; she would find treasured items and disperse them to those she felt they should belong to. Most of all, she loved life, and she believed in living with flair. She will be remembered for her quick wit, her adventurous spirit and how much she loved a good laugh.
Annie is preceded in death by her husband, Russ Stiving; her brother, Michael Jones; her daughter, Deborah Levine; and her son, Michael Patrick Connolly. She is survived by her sister, Avis Austed; her daughters and their husbands, Lynnette Shaw and William Jacobson, Marina Hankins and James Hankins, and Shawna Connolly; her son, Lawrence Connolly; grandchildren, Sara Shaw, Adam Shaw, Samuel Levine, Benjamin Levine, Joseph Hankins, Nicole Hankins, Brandon Werner, Breanna Pelletier, Tyler Roney, Alina Connolly, Kyle Connolly and Aurora Connolly; and great-grandchildren, Isaiah Wright, Delilah Werner, Paisley Werner, Christian Shaw, Riley Shaw, Iris Grounds and August Grounds. All of these she loved and touched deeply.
Please join us in celebrating her life on what would have been her 82nd birthday, Tuesday, March 26, 2019, commencing at 5:30 p.m., at St. John's United Methodist Church, 1801 O'Malley Road in Anchorage.