Sandra Lynn Taylor

1963 - 2025

Sandra Lynn Taylor, beloved baby sister and auntie, passed away peacefully on April 1, 2025, with love and prayers surrounded by family and friends. Sandie was born on June 11, 1963, to Ann Evans and William T. Taylor. She would have the last chuckle as she departed for heaven on April Fool's Day.

Sandie was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska. She attended Joy Elementary and graduated from West Valley High School. As a child, summers were spent with the family subsistence fishing near her mother's village, Rampart, or in small camps in the Interior where the family sometimes followed their father who worked on road construction. Later her parents moved their fish camp to the Tanana River at the mouth of the Manley Hot Springs Slough. They purchased a summer cabin in Manley and soon built a fish processing plant nearby where Sandie worked primarily in the roe room making salmon caviar for the Japanese markets. She left the state for a time for Sedro-Woolley, Washington, to attend a career and technical academy. For several years Sandie helped manage her former husband's lumber store, Ace Plywood. Then she worked as a pilot car driver on the Alaska TAPS Haul Road before joining the laborer's inion, Local 942, working primarily as a flagger until her retirement.

In earlier times Sandie enjoyed grayling fishing, snowmachining and spending time at her cabin on the Manley Hot Springs Slough. She even crewed in her brother-in-law Click's Yukon 800 boat, Pride of the Yukon. She learned to sew fur from Sabie Jervsjo who had learned from Sandie's Great Aunt Sally Hudson. She became prolific at making trapper hats, selling them or gifting them to her nieces and nephews, and teaching others how to make them. She enjoyed cooking and often would make a big batch of something to share with others. Sandie didn't have children of her own, but she "adopted" all her nieces and nephews and if you heard it from her, she claimed to have raised her nieces Lori and Lisa Bishop. Sandie was a Doyon, Ltd., Baan-o-yeel-Kon, and Tozitna Corporation shareholder.

While she had her struggles, her family loved her fiercely. She loved the Lord, and we can rest assure that she is no longer in pain and is at rest with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sandie was predeceased by her parents; grandparents, Elaine Pitka Woods and Jesse Evans, and Kate O'Quin; and siblings, Jim, Linda and Billy.

She is survived by her aunt, Paula Evans; siblings and their spouses, Darlene and Click Bishop, Greg and Monica Taylor, Ricky Taylor and half-siblings Donna el-Amin and Doris Gates; nieces and nephews, Lori and Lisa Bishop, Marina (Dom) Cooper, Alex (Serina) Taylor, Hanna Taylor, Brooke and Christian Taylor; greats, Taylor, Kadence, and Evan Brinkman, Basil Foxx III, Isaiah Dunham, Amelia, Gianna, and Jacqueline Cooper, and Raegan and Evelyn Taylor; and many beloved cousins.

Services will be at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 1030 Second Ave., Saturday, April 5, 2025. Visitation will be noon to 1 p.m. with the services following at 1 p.m. Tea and a covered dish will follow the service in the church's parish hall. Sandie made a "reservation" to be buried at Birch Hill Cemetery next to her parents, which will happen in late spring. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St. Matthew's Episcopal Church "Raise the Roof" fund or bring or drop off later a case/box of individual snacks, bottled water, etc. for the church's street ministry cupboard in her memory. The family will be holding tea at her brother Greg's home from 3-8 p.m. Friday, April 4, 2025.