Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Longtime resident and business manager Corlene Rose died Sunday, Nov. 7 in Anchorage at the Alaska Regional Hospital, of complications from lung cancer. She was 76. Her end was unexpected, but peaceful, her daughters Rhonda Davis and Ralene Rose said.

Friends and family remembered Rose this week as hardworking, caring and capable. "She was about the nicest person I knew. She didn’t socialize and was kind of a homebody, but if you were her friend, you were her friend for life and she was a rock. If she said she was going to do something, she did it. They don’t make them like that anymore," Benjie Stewart said.

Rose was close to her grown daughters, both of Haines. "She didn’t say her opinion unless you asked her, and when you were feeling sad, you could always talk to her. She knew what to say to make you feel better," daughter Rhonda Davis said.

Corlene and Ray Rose and their two young children moved to Haines from Washington in 1964 when Ray took a job as a mechanic for John Schnabel at his sawmill. Corlene quickly found office work.

She was a self-taught businesswoman, who friends say was smart and learned from the people she worked with. "She knew what she was doing and no one took advantage of her unless she wanted them to," Stewart said. Rose worked as the office manager for Lutak Stevedoring, Klukwan Inc. and most recently Chilkat Cruises and Tours.

"Everybody called her ‘Office Mom.’ She took care of us," Chilkat Cruises co-worker Tina Olsen said. "She was just a joy to work with and a lot of fun to be around. It was really hard on her when Chilkat Cruises closed. This was her life. She loved her job, and worked year ‘round, but always looked forward to summer when everyone came back."

When she wasn’t working, Rose was usually outdoors, at the family cabin at Chilkat Lake, snowmachining, and especially sport fishing. "She had her own skiff out at the lake, and she liked to go out to Chilkoot and fish in the river," Rhonda Davis said.

"She loved playing outside with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She’d go sledding or take them out on snowmachines, and we always had a big Christmas dinner at her house with the kids running around."

Corlene Rose was born in Rutland, Vermont on March 17, 1934 to Albert and Lyla West, and raised at Grant’s Pass, Ore. She met Ray Rose while they were still in school. After high school graduation they married and worked in Oregon and Washington before heading north.

While she was shy and quiet with strangers, with friends and family she was outgoing and generous. "She hated having her picture taken," Rhonda Davis said this week, wishing she had a few more good ones.

In addition to her daughters, four grandchildren, five great- grandchildren, sister Mary Cole, and brother Francis West, both of Grant’s Pass, many nieces and nephews survive Corlene Rose. Her husband Ray Rose and her parents preceded her in death.

At her request, there will be no memorial, and her ashes will be scattered with her husband’s in her favorite fishing spot.