Longtime Soldotna resident Elizabeth Jane Rusk died Monday, July 23, 2007, at Heritage Place in Soldotna. She was 85.

A graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007, at Spruce Grove Memorial Park in Kasilof. A memorial service will follow at 4 p.m. at Soldotna Bible Chapel, 300 W. Marydale in Soldotna. The VFW Post No. 10046 and American Legion Post No. 20 will perform military honors. Pastor John Rysdyk will officiate.

Mrs. Rusk was born July 11, 1922, to Hugh and Violet Muir in Armstrong, County, Pa. She graduated from high school in Ellwood City, Pa., and received a nursing degree from St. Francis School of Nursing in Pittsburgh, Pa. She served as a registered nurse in the Army Nurse Corps from 1945 to 1948. She was stationed in Italy prior to the end of World War II and later in Japan. After her honorable discharge from the service, she settled in Colorado, where she met her husband, Frank E. Rusk.

The couple moved to Alaska in 1952 with their three small children and homesteaded in the Clam Gulch area, where they lived until moving to Oregon in 1969. The family moved back to Alaska in 1974 and settled in the Soldotna area, where Mrs. Rusk lived until the time of her death. She worked at Central Peninsula Hospital for 15 years and retired in 1990. She worked in a number of departments during her years of employment, including infection control and quality assurance.

She was a member of Soldotna Bible Chapel and actively served in the church. She also was a member of the Soldotna TOPS Club and enjoyed the many friends she made there.

"Mom's greatest treasures on this earth were her faith, her family, and her friends. Mom loved the Lord and it is comforting to know that she is now in his presence," her family said.

Mrs. Rusk was preceded in death by her husband; sisters, Peg Rhodes, Isabel Chamblin and Jean Pickering; and brothers, Don Muir and James Muir.

She is survived by her son, Jim Rusk and his wife, Kimberly, of Soldotna; daughters, Maggie Calder and her husband, Tom, of Telluride, Colo., Marybeth Jackson and her husband, Charles, and Mickey McCartan and her husband, Dick, of Soldotna; sisters, Mary Dilzer and her husband, Chuck, of Peru, N.Y. and Annetta Richter of Annapolis, Md.; grandchildren, Trista Clark, Ryan Jackson, Sarah Inabnit, Jesse Calder and Aaron, Mark and Rachel McCartan, and Race and Payton Rusk; and great-grandchildren, Sydney and Savannah Clark and Jessica and Joshua Inabnit.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to the Solid Rock Bible Camp, P.O. Box 489 Soldotna, AK 99669.

Arrangements were made by Peninsula Memorial Chapel.