Obituary from the Fairbanks, Alaska, "Daily News-Miner" newspaper, dated Friday, January 29, 2010, page B2:

Lucille Tekla Conway, who called Fairbanks home for 55 years, died Jan. 17, 2010, in Houston, Texas, after a brief illness. She was 91.

Lucille, the youngest of five children, was born June 16, 1918, in Wilkeson, Wash., to Onufri Chromoga and Mary Patchko Chromoga. She moved to Fairbanks in 1948 for a summer job at a doughnut shop but ended up staying for 55 years. She married longtime resident Frank Conway in 1953, and they had one daughter, Roberta Conway MacInnis.

Their distinctive home at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Kellum Street was known for its green shutters with white crescent moons, flower boxes overflowing with red geraniums, and the lush fiddlehead ferns surrounding the front of the house. Their award-winning Christmas decorations attracted viewers from across town. The historic Kitty Hensley house also sat on their property, and the couple donated it to the Pioneers of Alaska in celebration of the 1967 centennial exposition. It is now in Pioneer Park.

Lucille was active in Emblem Club No. 109. She also was a member of the Women's Igloo No. 8 of the Pioneers of Alaska and the Fairbanks Curling Club. She learned to fly and enjoyed the Alaska outdoors, particularly fishing. Her home was filled with opera and classical music, and she loved crossword puzzles and reading. A lifelong Democrat, she was vitally interested in current events. She was a natural hostess and loved to entertain her many friends and family, as well as her daughter's friends. "In her quiet, unassuming way she was the life of the party," is how one friend described her.

Following Frank's death in 1967, Lucille went to work for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 1243. She retired in the mid-1980s and continued to live independently at her home on Eighth Avenue.

Lucille moved to Houston in 2003 to be close to her daughter's family. She continued to entertain, hosting weekly martini nights in her 29th-floor apartment overlooking Hermann Park. She also loved to sail on Galveston Bay in her family's 42-foot sailboat, Coho.

In addition to her daughter, Lucille is survived by her son-in-law, Jason MacInnis, and grandson, Francis MacInnis. She also is survived by her stepson Charles Conway, his wife, Diana Conway, of Goodyear, Ariz.; daughter-in-law Mary Wise and her husband, Dennis Wise; granddaughter Jill Meath and great-grandchildren Michael and Nicholas Meath, all of Paradise Valley, Ariz.; and niece Linda Draper of Milton, Wash.

No memorial service is planned. Those wishing to do so may donate to the charity of their choice in her memory.