- Date Of Birth: May 6, 1934
- Date Of Death: November 3, 2021
- Spouse: Wayne Diller
- Resting Place: Anchorage
- City: Anchorage
- State: Alaska
Reta, 87, moved to her heavenly home on Nov. 2, 2021. She died peacefully at home in the care of her family with wonderful support from Hospice care. We were extremely blessed to have this time at home with her.
Born in May 1934, in Ohio, to Willis and Mary Ross, she was the oldest of five children. At age 6, her family moved to the Fairview/Comins, Mich., area where they owned and operated a dairy farm. After graduating from Fairview High, she married her high school sweetheart, Wayne Diller. She was an accomplished seamstress and even made her own wedding dress. They were married 67 years.
Wayne and Reta moved to Alaska with their three children in 1966, with the intentions of homesteading and living off the land. Plans changed and they relocated from Kenai to Anchorage, Alaska, in 1973, where they remained. They generously opened their home to numerous foster care children and Reta babysat countless children over the years.
Reta was a humble servant at Cornerstone Church for over four decades as bookkeeper/treasurer, lawn caretaker, child caregiver, kitchen attendant and Sunday greeter. She was also a talented quilter, donating many hand-quilted blankets to the Proyecto Fe auction, with proceeds benefiting the peoples of Guatemala. She quilted numerous baby blankets for family, friends, newborns at the church, Guatemalan babies and babies at the Heart to Heart Pregnancy Resource Center. And she crocheted Christmas ornaments, particularly snowflakes and angels, as well as personalized wall hangings.
She was also an accomplished cook. Her children and grandchildren remember decorating an endless supply of sugar cookies with multiple colors of icing at Christmas and Easter. And who could forget the dishes at a church potluck that had the signature “Reta touch”. The red and green homemade bread rolls at Christmas or the yellow and orange rolls at Easter, and there were the sweet heavenly “deviled” eggs that only she made; the pickled eggs and beets; the homemade applesauce; the pumpkin pie that had her special twist; the rhubarb custard pie that was to die for; the huckleberry pie made from Michigan huckleberries that she picked and canned and brought to Alaska over the years; and the Barbecups, which people could not decide to put on the entree table or the dessert table.
She loved gardening and growing her own fruit and vegetables, and working in the yard, meticulously removing clover and crabgrass runners by hand.
Reta was a loving, compassionate daughter, wife, mother, sister, grandmother and great-grandmother, and friend to all who knew her. Reta is preceded in death by her parents, Willis and Mary Ross; and sister, Elaine Dirks. She is survived by her two brothers, John and Truman Ross; sister, Marlene McMullin; husband Wayne Diller; children Denise Kauke, Beverly (Rick) Smith, and David (Cindy) Diller; grandchildren, Jason, Jesse and Jeena Kauke, Emilee (Matt) Bydlon, Amanda Diller, Melissa (Isaac) Ruelas and Jeremy Diller; and great-grandchildren, Max Kauke, Kira and Levi Bydlon.
