Edith Bean and Mary Wilson

From the Juneau Empire, Tuesday, October 12, 1999

Edith Bean

Lifetime Hoonah resident Edith Bean died Oct. 10, 1999, at the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka after a long illness.

She was born Feb. 6, 1917, in Hoonah to Ross and Lillian Sheakley. Her Tlingit name was Yahs-tooch and she was a member of the Mt. Fairweather House of the T'ak Dein Taan clan of Hoonah. She was the assistant clan mother of the T'ak Dien Taan clan. She was a child of the Choo-kaa-nei-dei.

She was a lifetime member of the Hoonah Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 12, and served the group in many capacities, including as a past president. She was a grand officer for ANS during the 1940s and very involved in political activities of the time, including the Equal Rights Law. She represented Hoonah at many statewide ANB and ANS conventions, and served several terms on the Hoonah city council.

She was a lifetime member of the Hoonah Presbyterian Church, and held several positions in the church, including attending the presbyteries as the Hoonah representative. She was the soprano soloist for the church choir, which performed every Sunday.

She completed high school at the Wrangell Institute. She also lived in Port Althorp and Dundas Bay prior to settling in Hoonah permanently. She worked for many seasons at the Icy Straits cannery, and worked as a master crab shaker at Hoonah Seafoods, eventually becoming the floor boss. She also worked at the Hoonah clam cannery. She was a store keeper for Ganty's and Hoonah Seafoods store, and a substitute teacher in the Hoonah schools.

She married Hoonah fisherman Richard Bean, who preceded her in death in 1985. She was also preceded in death by her sister and three brothers, her son Patrick Bean and daughters Myrtle and Ellen Bean.

She is survived by daughter Virginia Townly of Washington, and sons Kenneth Bean, Victor Bean and Richard Bean Jr. and granddaughters Valerie Veler, and Krissy Bean of Hoonah, and Karen Karlson of Juneau and Donna Ann Kinnunen of Washington, grandsons Victor Bean Jr. of Hoonah, Edward Bean of Anchorage and John Kinnunen of Washington. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews. In the Tlingit tradition, she adopted these children as her grandchildren upon the death of her brothers and sister.

The ANS memorial services were held at 7 tonight in Hoonah at ANB Hall, with funeral services immediately following.

Pall bearers were Eddie Bean, Frank See Jr., Duane M. Williams, Donald Williams, Willie Williams, Dale Williams and Jack Lee. Honorary pall bearers will be John Hinchman Sr., Sam Hanlon Sr., Wilbur James Sr., Frank White Sr., Pete Peterson, Frank Wright Sr., George Martin, James Austin Jr. and William Ozzie Sheakley.