Ermalee Hickel

Ermalee Hickel (September 11, 1925 – September 14, 2017) was an American public figure and philanthropist who served as the second and seventh First Lady of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and again from 1990 to 1994. She was the wife of the former Governor of Alaska Wally Hickel and one of the last members of Alaska's generation of pioneer political families. Her family, who had arrived as pioneers in Anchorage in 1917, settled in a small cottage-style house located at Ninth Avenue and P Street near the Cook Inlet. Hickel, now a widower with a baby son, remembered that his late wife had praised Strutz. In August 2008, then-Governor Sarah Palin honored Ermalee Hickel, as well as former first ladies Neva Egan, Bella Hammond, Susan Knowles and Nancy Murkowski, at an official ceremony and luncheon to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood. In a 2012 interview, Ermalee Hickel discussed her involvement in Alaska politics for the documentary, Alaska, the World and Walter Hickel. Hickel and former Alaska First Lady Bella Hammond partnered to re-establish Backbone Alaska, a political group which had originally been established in 1999 by former governors Wally Hickel and Jay Hammond to oppose perceived oil company concessions by then-Governor Tony Knowles' administration during the merger of BP and ARCO.

Personal life and death Hickel's husband of 65 years, former Governor Wally Hickel, died on May 7, 2010, at the age of 90. Ermalee Hickel died at home in Anchorage on September 14, 2017, at the age of 92. Her memorial service was held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Co-Cathedral in Anchorage on October 18, 2017.

Hickel was buried beside her husband in Anchorage Memorial Park. Like her husband, the former first lady was buried standing up facing Washington, D.C. In 2010, Governor Wally Hickel had famously requested to also be buried standing up in the direction of the U.S. capital. According to their son, Jack, the Hickels had requested the unusual burial arrangement, recalling "He [Governor Hickel] said if they don't do it right he's going to crawl out of his grave and straighten them out...He thought they were going to screw everything up. He wanted to keep his eye on them."