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

Daphne Ormerod died peacefully at the Comstock Road home she shared with daughter Blythe Carter on Monday July 13. She was 79 and had Parkinson's disease.

Carter is grateful that her mother was able to live out her days at home, surrounded by their garden, animals and the mountains she loved.

"Mom would say, 'If you want to do something, do it,'" Carter said, and was proud of the life she created for her family in Haines.

 Carter said she and her mother were "best friends" and that her mother will be remembered for her perseverance, love for her children, good humor, home making (literally, she built her home), and her ability to "whup anyone at Chinese checkers." Carter left her job at the Haines Sheldon Museum five years ago to take care of her mother and their small farm.

Daphne Ormerod (she helped people spell her name properly with the riddle "When I go fishing, I bring me pole or me rod.") was born in Mackay, Queensland Australia on June 8, 1941 to William and Georgina "Blanche" Ormerod. Her father was an ambulance medic and driver. Her older brother Colin died in his 20s, and three younger siblings, all of Australia, survive her. The family was poor and moved often. From a young age Ormerod dreamed of Alaska. "She'd play in leaves and pretend they were snow," Carter said. "She hated the heat." At 14 she left school to work. When she was 21 she married Garth Moore in New South Wales, Australia, and they spent about eight years traveling the world, working as they went. She cooked at logging camps in New Zealand and cleaned hotels in Europe, Nepal and Russia before returning to Australia where her daughter Wenda and son Grantley were born. The marriage ended and she flew to Seattle with 2-year-old Grant. Her ex-husband was supposed to send Wenda when they were settled, but instead disappeared with the child. They reunited years later.

Ormerod worked where she could, joined the Tip Toppers club for tall people, and hiked and climbed nearby mountains including Mount Rainier. A friend of a friend offered Ormerod and her son a ride to Alaska and she jumped at the opportunity. He dropped them off in tiny Tenakee Springs and flew away. She met Neil Carter in Rosie's Cafe and they were married shortly after that. They had a daughter, Blythe. They built a cabin, and she grew a garden and hunted deer to survive. Eight years later Ormerod and her children left Neil Carter and Tenakee to start over. She enrolled in a four-year aviation mechanic program at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and when that was completed they migrated to warmer Seattle. She worked as mechanic on small planes in Fairbanks and on medevac helicopters in Bellingham. After life threw them more curve balls, the family decided to try Alaska again, and chose Haines, where Ormerod picked up a small plot of land for the payments and proceeded to build their home in stages.

"Practical" is how Carter describes her mother's design sense and cooking. The house was shelter, and meals were sustenance. "We didn't have any money, but she managed to get the place built. If anything needed to be done, she just did it," Carter said, teaching her children life skills along the way. She raised meat rabbits, ducks, and chickens and cultivated just about all of their property in vegetables, berries, and fruit trees. "She loved her tomatoes and strawberries," Carter said.

"She was very happy when we had cleared below the house so she could see 'her mountains,'"Carter says.

After reuniting with her oldest daughter, Ormerod traveled to Australia regularly, staying up to six months at a time.

Her hobbies included photography, Sudoku, Chinese checkers, and reading how-to books. "She made a lot of use of the library," Carter said.

Ormerod was stubborn and frank. "Mom always told it like it was. Sometimes it drove me crazy, but sometimes you need that," Carter said.

When a friend or neighbor asked Ormerod how she was doing, she'd reply, "'Do you want the truth or a lie?' and before they answered she'd say 'Let me tell you a lie. I'm wonderful!'" Carter said.

Daphne Ormerod leaves behind her children, Juneau fishing charter owner Grantley Moore, Blythe Carter in Haines, Wenda Moore in Canberra, Australia, grandchild Briana Gleason in California, and siblings Peter Ormerod, Dot Hall and Rob Dowery, along with numerous nieces and nephews in Australia.

There will be a small celebration of her life in the garden later this summer.

Donations in Ormerod's memory may be made to Becky's Place at P.O. Box 1506 Haines, AK 99827.