Alice Wisel Casteel

1927 - 2010

Former Fairbanks resident Alice Mae Wisel Casteel, 82, died July 3, 2010, in Port Orchard, Wash., where she had lived since 1997.
Alice was born Dec. 24, 1927, the last of seven children to John Henry and Lyda Jane Bennett in Bremerton, Wash.
On Aug. 24, 1945, she married a Navy man, Victor Wisel, and they moved to Fairbanks where they had five children. Mom was a homemaker while dad worked at Municipal Utilities System and then in 1959 started VJ Plumbing & Heating. They retired in 1971 and moved to Alabama where they lived on Lake Martin, then on a farm in Dadeville where Victor died in October 1987.
In May 1997, Alice married her brother's best friend, Morey Casteel. They wintered in Yuma, Ariz., for 13 years until health issues prevented it.
Her family wrote: "Our mom was our shining example of what a mom should be. She was attentive to our interests and was always interested in our families and what they were doing. When we were young she was both a 4-H and Girl Scout leader. She was a great cook and even better seamstress. She enjoyed sewing most of her life.
"Then as we grew older she joined the Mid-Acres Garden Club and really enjoyed that. About 20 years ago, she took an art class and discovered an untapped eye for detail and beauty. Now we have many personal paintings to remember her by."
She was preceded in death by her parents; her siblings; her first husband, Victor Wisel; and son-in-law, Harold Musgrove.
She is survived by her husband, Morey Casteel; her children, Vicki Mowrey, Bette Musgrove and John and Patricia Wisel, all of Fairbanks, Patricia and Terry Graves of Georgia, and Joan and Jeff Phillips of Cordova; grandchildren and spouses, Karen and Chris Sampson, Joan and Brad Abrams, Conna Graves, David and Carol Phillips, Hayley, Alyssa and Andy Musgrove, John II, Michael, Christie, Victor and Rachel Wisel; and one great-grandchild, Keegan Sampson.
A local service is pending.