November 3, 2010

Ida Gryte

Ida Margaret Hildegard Gryte, 90, died Oct. 13, 2010, in Anchorage, Alaska.
A memorial service is planned for 2:00 p.m. Fri., Nov. 12, at Central Lutheran Church at 1420 Cordova St., Anchorage. A private burial took place at Angelus Memorial Park, where she was laid to rest beside her husband.
Ida was born Jan. 3, 1920, at home in Alexander, N.D., to Ole and Hulda Hagen. She spent her youth in North Dakota, graduating from Arnegard High School as salutatorian in 1937. After graduation, she attended the Minnesota School of Business in St. Paul, and then returned home, where she found employment in Bismarck typing motor vehicle cards on tin. Her employment in North Dakota also included several years at the Triple A County office in Watford City, where she honed her skills as a clerk steno.
In 1939, when she was recuperating from surgery, a friend came to visit. The friend had been driven to visit Ida by Haaken Gryte. This was Ida’s first encounter with her future husband. In the early 40s, an opportunity to work in Washington, D.C., for the Adjutant General’s Office came available. After six months of work and life in D.C., she decided she would rather be in North Dakota, so she returned home and back to her job at Triple A. Her drive and sense of adventure led her to attend an Agricultural College in Fargo. She then moved to Williston and worked for an attorney, and then for the Soil Conservation Service.
On Dec. 14, 1948, she married Haaken Gryte and made the move to Alaska. They arrived in Anchorage before the end of that year, and she remained an Alaskan from that time until her death. The majority of her employment in Anchorage was with what became the Municipality in the secretarial and accounting fields. She retired after 30 years of service in 1981.
In the late 50s, Ida worked with her husband to “prove up” on homestead land located north of Big Lake. This property became a place where they enjoyed entertaining extended and “adopted” family and friends. Eventually, the homestead became a hay farm. In 1996, the Miller’s Reach fire destroyed all of that. Due to much determination and hard work, the farm again became a place where Ida enjoyed spending time. She was always willing to travel the distance, see the improvements, and visit with friends there until her health declined at the end of July.
Ida is survived by her nephews, Gary and Oren Hagen; nieces, Ilene Heiser, Donna Johnson, and Claire Sullivan, all of North Dakota; her Alaska family, Marsha, John, and James Korpi; and her special “adopted” family, Shannon Harper, and Phenix and Mattigan Johnson, who provided care and love to Ida during her final years. Ida will always be remembered as a very sweet and special lady.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Haaken; her sister, Ella Hagen; and her brother, Lester Hagen.
 

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