Margaret Gray

Margaret Alberta Clarke Gray, former Alaska Bush nurse, educator and homemaker, passed away April 21 at her home in Fairbanks due to cancer at age 86.
Margaret was the second child born to Joseph and Marylizbeth Clarke in the Lloydminster Saskatchewan hospital. Her family lived on a farm 20 miles southwest of Lloydminster near the small town of Paradise Valley, Alberta. Margaret's mother, born in the United States, had been a school teacher before her marriage. Her father immigrated to Canada from England with his parents when he was 12 years old.
Their home had oil lamps and an outhouse, no running water or telephone, typical for a farm home of the 1930s. The family grew to include five children; four girls and one boy. Margaret's school was a one room building with a nearby barn for horses and one teacher for all eight grades. The two older Clarke children rode a horse to school and later a cart was added when brother Jack started school.
In 1941, after a few frozen digits on the children, the promise of an easier life on the coast, and not wanting to go into debt for mechanical farm equipment, it was decided to sell out and move to Vancouver Island. A year later they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and three years later to Gibsons Landing, British Columbia.
Then in 1947 the American faction of the family sponsored the Clarkes into the United States to Idaho where Margaret finished her last year of high school. Between 1948 and 1951, Margaret put herself though school at the University of Idaho at Moscow by working at the local telephone office. Because the family car was unreliable, she only returned home twice a year during this time even though it was 80 miles away.
After graduation with a pre-nursing degree, Margaret taught school for one year in the small town of Pierce, Idaho, and summer babysitting in order to save money to continue an advanced nursing degree. So, off to the University of Washington School of Nursing for the years of 1952-55, working a switchboard at the hospital part-time to support herself until graduation with a Bachelor's of Science in public health nursing.
By 1950, tuberculosis in Alaska's rural villages was so bad that hospitals were overwhelmed. In 1955, Margaret and nine other nurses were hired by the U.S. Public Health Service to administer two new medicines that had proven very effective for tuberculosis. She was based in Fairbanks but assigned to the villages of the upper Yukon River. With the medicines, TB was quickly but temporarily eradicated within a year. Then, she was hired by the Territory of Alaska for general nursing work in the same geographic area. This is where she first met her future husband, Charles (Chuck) Gray, when he was weathered-in at Fort Yukon on a hunting trip.
During the five years she worked as a public health nurse she developed a deep respect and admiration for the Native people where she worked - the upper Yukon and Nome areas.
After her nursing career and marriage, it may have been a bit of a surprise to her husband to learn that Margaret had quit her job in order to become a full-time homemaker, mother of three, and devoting her life to volunteerism.
Margaret's strong Christian faith was the root of her humble nature, always putting others first. After her marriage in 1962 she served as Sunday school superintendant for more than 30 years and participated in other activities at First Presbyterian Church, as well as several other charitable groups.
Margaret is survived by her husband of 54 years, Charles Gray; her children John (Jeanne), Allen (Tracie) and Steve; sisters Beth and Alice; brother Jack (Jane) and brother-in-law Gilbert; six grandchildren, Baylie, Emily, Jessica, Abby, Aaron, Naomi, all Grays; and two great-grand children, Freyja and Ogden Carlson. Her three sons followed her example, putting themselves through college and earning degrees.
According to her request, there will be a private family service in her home. The family wishes to thank the local Hospice group for their professional assistance following her diagnosis.
In lieu of flowers, Margaret suggested donations may be made to the Literacy Council of Alaska, LOVE In the Name of Christ, Fairbanks Correctional Ministries, or the Breast Cancer Detection Center of Alaska, all of which she has donated her time.