Everna Mae Worthen

1944 - 2024

Everna Mae Worthen danced with abandon in the streets of heaven on July 10, 2024, after a 16-month battle with triple negative breast cancer.

Born April 11, 1944, to George and Hazel Van Ravenhorst, Everna grew up in Mankato, Minnesota, where she worked as a telephone operator and met the love of her life, Harold. They married in 1966 eventually settling in North Pole, Alaska, with their two children, Aaron and Rebecca, as they homesteaded Valleydale Farms. There they helped pioneer the Eielson Farm Road community.

Everna retired from the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, where she worked in management. She was very involved with the Tanana Valley Farmers Market as a board member and vendor, helping to secure its current home on College Road and future growth.

Her warm, whimsical nature shined light, kindness and joy, as she never met a stranger. She was well known for her gifted singing ability and many talents stemming from seamstress and ornate loom weaver to being an accomplished Alaska Master Gardener. Everna loved life and she lived it well.

Above all, she valued her relationship with Jesus Christ, as it was the river of joy in her life. May she forever be a testament to the saving grace of our Lord.

So, my dear friends, we commit Everna to the care of our Heavenly Father. In the days ahead, we lean upon the everlasting arms of God. He will bear us up and give us strength. We turn to Him with our sorrow, our tears and our heartaches, as He is our comfort. We hold fast to our faith as it bears us up and sees us through the valley of the shadows. Our lives are not in despair because one who was so great and so dear a part of it has gone. Rather we choose to live out the rest of our lives with fullness and joy. We live as the Father would have lived. Therefore, as we lose our lives in God and His service, we will find them again, in a fuller, richer measure than we can possibly know.

Everna was preceded in death by her son, Aaron Worthen, as well as her mother and father. She is survived by her husband, Harold Worthen, and daughter, Rebecca Worthen, both of Arizona; brother, Jim Van Ravenhorst of Minnesota; and daughter-in-law, Rhonda Howard, and grandchildren, Liberty Worthen and Cammi McDowell, all of North Pole, Alaska.

Please get regular screening mammograms to detect breast cancer early when treatments have the best chance of a cure.

Donations in Everna's honor may be made to True North Church (Fairbanks).