Obituary of Gertrude Marie Christopher

Gertrude Marie Christopher A Memorial Service for Gertrude Marie "Trudy" Christopher, a Tucson resident since 1998, will be held from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Sunday, February 23, 2014, at Tohono Chul Park in the Demonstration Gardens at Ina Rd. and Northern. Rev. David Pavesic of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church will officiate. Afterwards, Trudy's ashes will be spread in the Tucson desert. Trudy died December 8, 2013, after a year-long fight with cancer. She was 83. She was born September 1, 1930, in Billings, Okla., the daughter of Ellen Grace (Whelan) and Glenn R. Davis. She graduated from Nowata (Okla.) High School in 1947, and from Rockford College, Rockford, Ill., in 1951, with a degree in dramatic literature. She married Garvin "Chris" Christopher in 1963 in California;, and they lived in Medford, Ore., Hawaii,, and Eureka, Calif. At the time of his death in 1985, they were in Santa Ana, Calif. After retiring from the University of California, Long Beach, Trudy moved to Tucson, where she enjoyed a wide range of activities. She belonged to the library, a quilting club, church, and tracking, trapping, and volunteer search and rescue groups. She followed politics, the economy, social media, sports, and the arts and was an engaging conversationalist and letter-writer. At Thanksgiving she would go to Alaska to make dinner for family in Sitka, then continue on to spend time in the frozen north, another of her joys. Some of her ashes will be scattered near Fairbanks, Alaska. Trudy was preceded in death by her husband, Garvin Christopher; and brothers, Tim, Thom, and Chuck Montgomery. She is survived by son, Tim Christopher, of Henderson, Nev.; her sisters, Dee Longenbaugh of Juneau, Alaska, and Cathy Bagley and Sandy Poulson of Sitka, Alaska; 16 nephews and nieces; and many friends, who were like family. Arrangements by ADAIR FUNERAL HOMES, Avalon Chapel.