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Alaska State Legislature House and Senate Democrats |
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE · February 16, 2004 |
Legislature offers sympathy to two senators
Sen. Bettye Davis and Sen. Gene Therriault lose family members
(Juneau) - The Legislature extends condolences to two of its members who lost relatives in the past week.
Sen. Bettye Davis (D-Anchorage) lost her husband of 45 years, Troy Davis, to cancer early this morning. Troy was born in 1934. In 1973 he brought his family to Alaska as a member of the military. He retired from the military and subsequently from service with the State of Alaska.
Always the quiet but supportive one, he was the classic example of a husband supporting a spouse in the limelight of public service. He will be missed by all who knew his calm, gentle ways. Besides his wife, he leaves a son Tony, a daughter Sonja and grandchildren Anthony, Alesha, Philecia and Taylor. Services are tentatively set for Saturday in Anchorage at Shiloh Baptist Church with burial to follow in Bernice, Louisiana. At this point no decision has been made on the matter of flowers or donations in lieu of flowers.
Hector P. Therriault, father of Senate President Gene Therriault (R-North Pole), passed away Feb. 12 after a battle with cancer.
Hector was born in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada, to American parents in 1920. He was raised in Canada as a dual U.S.-Canada citizen before moving to the United States during World War II.
After spending the war building fighter and bomber aircraft in California, he followed two of his brothers to Alaska in 1946 for what he assumed would be a summer job.
Hector met his wife Jeannette while visiting his family in Canada, and the two were married in 1951. They moved to the area that became the city of North Pole, and in 1956 purchased a tract of land from a homesteader, where they eventually built their home on the Old Richardson Highway. Their seven children were all born in Fairbanks at St. Joseph's Hospital and raised in North Pole.
Hector worked on a number of large-scale construction jobs, including the initial paving of the Richardson Highway, Ladd Airfield, Eielson Air Force Base and the 1965 reconstruction of Valdez following the 1964 earthquake. In 1956 he opened his own business, Hector’s Welding, in his garage, and worked to expand it into one of the largest steel fabrication and repair shops in the Interior. Hector retired in 1985 after 50 years with Local 302 Operating Engineers. His family, including Sen. Therriault, continues to operate the business.
The family of Hector Therriault requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to The Salvation Army, St. Nicholas building fund; Hospice of the Tanana Valley or Valdez Fisheries.
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 http://www.akdemocrats.org/Documents/021604_legislature_condolences.pdf · Additional information: Therriault Senator Bettye Davis |
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