Ella E Bentley

1936 - 2025

Ella passed away peacefully at home in Juneau, Alaska on December 27 th , 2025. Ella was born
to Florence Chernow and William Barber Ellis in Cascade, Montana on December 15 th , 1936.
Ella moved to Juneau in 1948 and graduated from Juneau-Douglas High School in 1955.
Ella was best known for her arts and crafts. In her earlier years, she loved painting Alaskan
scenery but later got into the world of beading. She loved doing bead work and had a
whimsical way of presenting her work. A lot of her work was one of a kind. Ella worked from
her studio at her home in West Juneau at Nowell Avenue and later at Fireweed Place for years.
She was part of the Juneau Artists Gallery, a local owned co-op of artists in the Senate Building
in Juneau and worked until 2024. Ella taught beading at local workshops and at national
beading conferences and seminars. Her beadwork was featured in art magazines in the US and
Canada.
Ella was also a commercial fisherman out of Port Alexander, Alaska. She used to fish on her
boat the F/V Six Pak. She loved the outdoors.
Around town, Ella and her husband Jim used to take their pot-bellied pet pig Nort to grade
schools for children to learn and have fun. Ella used to love to have fun. Until her later years,
once a year, Ella would travel to Reno to have a little fun and take her loose change to hit the
slot machines, play poker, bingo and blackjack and visit with relatives along the way. She used
to call that her fun trip.
Ella's surviving family includes her son, Gordon Johnson, his wife Susan; daughter, Valerie
Cyreir, her husband Mike and children; son, Craig Johnson. Ella was predeceased by her
parents, husband and daughter Brenda.
Ella requested that no services be performed. She will be cremated and her ashes spread at
Granite Creek up Basin Road in Juneau where in her younger years she used to hike. She asked
that everyone who knew her, have a little toast to her wishing her a great send off.
In lieu of flowers, Ella asked that you make donations to any of the local Juneau organizations
that help the people (Juneau food banks, Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul).