NASELLE – Naselle resident Aileen Josephine Alves, 81, died Jan. 30, 2003 in Longview. The youngest child born to Finnish immigrants Elmer and Josephine (Varila) Hill, she was born Aug. 16, 1921 at the family farm on Stringtown Road near the mouth of the Chinook River, west of Chinook. Her father died when she was three and the family then moved to Brownsmead, Ore. Her mother died two years later and Mrs. Alves and her brother went to Naselle to live with the Nasi family.

She attended Naselle grade school and graduated from Naselle High School in 1939. She then moved to San Francisco, Calif., to find a job and be near her other brothers and sisters. She met John Alves and they were married Dec. 14, 1939 in San Francisco, Calif. They lived in the Bay Area during the war years and also in Portland, Ore. In 1951 they returned to Naselle.

Mrs. Alves was a wife, mother and homemaker and also a telephone operator for Western Wahkiakum Telephone for 24 and a half years. She had the uncanny talent of remembering a great many phone numbers. She was a very active member of the Assembly of God Church in Naselle where she served as president of the Women’s Ministries for 45 years and partook in many church activities.

Flower and vegetable gardening, cooking and baking, sewing and upholstery, clamming and crawfishing, poetry and portrait painting – she enjoyed them all. She also assisted her husband wrapping meat at his business, John’s Meat Locker in Naselle for a number of years. She enjoyed wallpapering and time outdoors near a campfire. She was very proud of her Finnish ancestry. She was a grandmother to her family and others and was generous in many ways.

Survivors include her daughter and son-in-law: Lisa and Mike Bighill of Naselle; son and daughter-in-law: John and Carole Alves of Naselle; brother: Elmer Hill of Camino, Calif.; sister: Hilda Johnson of Naselle; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1987 and she was also preceded in death by brothers Art Johnson, Oscar Johnson and Wayne Johnson and sisters Eva Johnson, Esther Wirkkala and Elsie Dalton.

Funeral service will be Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003, at 1 p.m. at the Assembly of God Church in Naselle. Graveside committal follows at Peaceful Hill Cemetery in Naselle and a reception will be held at the church. The casket will be open at the church from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Memorials may be made to either the Community Hospice House or the Naselle Assembly of God Building Fund in care of Penttila’s Chapel by The Sea, P.O. Box 417, Long Beach, WA 98631.