Nancey M. Wright
Nikiski resident Nancey M. Wright, 70, died Thursday, Mar. 3, 2016 at home with her family by her side from metastatic lung cancer.
A celebration of her life will be in summer 2016.
Nancey was born May 19, 1945 in Dayton, Ohio. She commercial fished in the 1960s and served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s in Oklahoma. She moved to Oregon, where she received her Associate’s Degree in Nursing and was an LPN. She returned to Alaska in the late 1990s. She did housing for the Tilingit’Haida in Ketchikan. She returned to the Kenai Peninsula in the 2000s.
Nancey enjoyed fishing, beading, sewing, hunting, muscle cars, wildlife and spending time with her family.
“She lived life at her terms. She loved her family fiercely and gave her family new experiences. She led by example for her family that life is meant to be full, loved and no regrets. She also encouraged family about the importance of being and staying educated, to fulfill dreams and hopes for their own families.
“The last few years of her life, she loved gathering with family and telling her grandchildren her “war stories” of their parents, sharing jokes and she was just content and smiling watching her family gather with her,” her family wrote.
Nancey was preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Bessie Brown, siblings, Dick, James, and Mary, her only son, Henry Ivanoff, son-in-law, Michael W. Dirks, her children’s father, Kermit J. Ivanoff, Sr., adopted sister, Donna Harris and niece, Christy Dillon.
She is survived by daughters and sons-in-law, Veronica and Alberto C’Saez of Nikiski, Jaylee Harris and Tom Fretuetti of Kenai, Monica Ivanoff and Nick Goff of Nikiski, Teresa Larsen of Nikiski, and Diane O’Hearn of Kenai; grandchildren, Michael and Candice Dirk of Kenai, Pete Dirks of Soldotna, Jeff Dirks and Athena Baker of Kenai, William Dirks of Kenai, Benjamin and Jessica Dirks of Anchorage, David and Selena Dirks of Portland, Ore., Cassandra and Lake Nash of Kenai, Russell and Melissa Williams of Oregon, Daniel Chapman and Camilla Bundy of Sterling, William Chapman of Kenai, Jonathan and Cheryl Grogan of Willow, Jessica Grogan of Kenai, Charleen Ivanoff of Anchorage, Cody Allen Ivanoff of Wyoming, Christy Dillon of Kenai, Audrianna Mahaffey of Soldotna; numerous great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and extended family members; and brother and sister-in-law, Rick and Estrella Brown of Oregon.
Arrangements were by Peninsula Memorial Chapel in Kenai.