Willi Prittie submitted this obituary: How does one sum up a life well and thoroughly lived by reciting a few boring statistics? Born in West Virginia on Feb 6, 1950, grade school in Battle Creek Michigan, junior high school in Everett Washington, high school in Lakewood Colorado, graduated from Colorado State with a BA 1972, two years in the Peace Corps in Bogota Colombia followed by a full career with US Fish and Wildlife Service on wildlife refuges in Washington State. None of this does any justice to someone who was as multi-faceted and loved life, and was loved in life as much as Ellie Henke.
A talented artist all her life, her pen and ink drawings, charcoal, scratch-board, water color and oil paintings, prints and greeting cards were appreciated by many and also illustrated many published works. Much of her art was inspired by her two decades of enjoying and competing in horse eventing and hunter-jumper outings, as well as a great deal of time spent in the mountains, in nature, and bird-watching.
Ellie was also very involved with many kinds of fiber art: Quilting (all hand work) and various original fiber art pieces that she created both for sale as well as for her own pleasure. She not only created beautiful pieces of clothing and other items, she carded, spun and dyed her own wool yarn and other fabric prior to weaving, knitting, or sewing to create the finished product.
Ellie was generous about sharing her time and talents in helping others to learn many of these skills. She taught many classes as a volunteer instructor in community education programs in many of the places where she lived.
She considered herself only a visual artist, until she, in classic Ellie fashion, decided to learn to play cello. She played for several years in a local class and orchestra. True to her calling in life, she taught and helped other beginning musicians learn from her experience, and improve and thrive. Playing in the orchestra and also playing for herself for sheer fun and playing with many friends in low-key get togethers was an important part of what she loved in life the last decade.
Looking out my window, I see many fruits of her “green thumb” spreading around our home in Alaska. Ellie designed and built her own greenhouse to better utilize our Alaskan climate for growing beautiful flowers as well as a healthy organic kitchen garden. She even actively worked selective breeding her own “Alaskan” varieties of some things.
Like everything in her life that she found worthwhile learning and spending time on, Ellie became a very accomplished technical climber and mountain climber. After retiring from her federal government career at age 44, she became a very skilled and talented professional guide. She traveled the world both with and without me, working regularly on five continents guiding international expeditions, teaching climbing courses, and managing complicated logistics at remote foreign base camps. Interspersed with this professional activity were also many personal trips and expeditions world wide with sea kayak, pack raft, mountain bike, canoe, ski, sailboat, and of course many mountain climbing trips of all lengths and difficulties.
Ellie was an interesting combination: A warm, supportive, and fun to be around human being who was also very independent, intelligent, organized, creative, and often outspoken in support of truth and justice. Did I mention her sheer love of and enjoyment of life? Ellie was a great believer in creating your own reality and going after the life that one truly desires in a very conscious and aware fashion. She died much too early at 67 years young on October 2, 2017 after a short and intense fight with stage 4 gall bladder cancer only a bit longer than three weeks after she was diagnosed.
She is survived by her older brother and his wife Terry and Sue Henke and their two sons Patrick and Ryan in Overland Park, Kansas; her younger brother and his wife Tom Henke and Monica DiFranco in Covina, California; her youngest brother and his wife Fred Henke and Martha Lahana of Littleton, Colorado; and her constant life companion of 33 years, work mate, soul mate and husband Willi Prittie of Talkeetna, Alaska. She is well loved, and is and will be missed by many all over the world. Especially by me. . .
A celebration of her life is being planned for Autumnal (fall) Equinox this year, September 22, 2018 in her home village of Talkeetna, Alaska.
In lieu of flowers for this celebration, I would request that all consider a donation in her name to the Jessica Stevens Community Foundation, P.O. Box 436, Talkeetna, AK 99676, which benefits many local non-profits, or to KTNA community radio, or to a charity of your choosing.
Willi Prittie
Talkeetna, Alaska (April 2, 2018)
