Alaska is the final stop for well-traveled 103-year-old

Marjorie Kortkamp has a flower clipped to her soft gray curls, but she confessed it hasn't been the easiest morning, "I had a seizure!" she said matter-of-factly.

But as she settled into her room at the Anchorage Pioneer Home, Marge (as most people call her), relaxed into a spirited retelling of her long life, from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to the Last Frontier. Her eldest daughter, Diana, was there to help her with her morning routine and to fill in any gaps in the narrative.

A late-in-life move to Alaska

Marge is the beloved matriarch of a family of four children, one of whom passed in 2022. She moved to Alaska in 2005 and lived with Diana. The Anchorage Pioneer Home has been her home for about 16 years.

"When I came in, I said I want to know as many of these people as I can," she said. She got to know the Pioneer Home staff, their children, their other family members as well as her neighbors. She recounted that one of her fellow residents had lost a dog recently. "It was one of those cute little shih tzus," she said. But it was OK, after all, she added, because her friend's grandchild was going to have a child.

She especially likes those activities when toddlers come to interact with the Pioneer Home residents. "Oh, the little ones! That was fun," she said. She has also won a scarf playing bingo and she attends church at the Pioneer Home.

She is social and upbeat, despite having lost her vision and being able to hear only when her hearing aids are working.

Marge also has the benefit of having family who regularly visit her. Daughter Diana recently got married, and Marge was present with Diana, her granddaughter Nicole and great-granddaughter Brynn.

A witness to history

Anchorage is the latest in a series of cities Marge has called home since she was born in New Jersey in 1922. She grew up in Atlantic City, where she and her siblings would spend hours on the beach. Her mother would put up a bedsheet in the window to indicate to her children that it was time for lunch.

One day when Marge was 14 years old, the Hindenburg, a German zeppelin, flew over her home. The captain of the airship had been diverted over Manhattan because of thunderstorms. He also flew over the Jersey shore while waiting for the weather to clear. Thousands gathered in New York and New Jersey to watch the Hindenburg, which had only started commercial service the year before. Minutes later, the airship, loaded with hydrogen, crashed at Lakehurst Naval Station in New Jersey and exploded, killing 36 people.

Another memory stems from the early days of her adulthood. Marge was widowed as a young mother, with two children, ages 6 and 3. She remembers flying on a DC-4 to go live with her parents in California. During a refueling stop, another woman noticed Marge's frazzled state. "A lady...an angel in disguise," Marge said, helped her wrangle the children. "She was so nice and we made it."

While in California, Marge worked for "Mr. Phillips" as in Frank Phillips, who founded the Phillips Petroleum Co. that later merged with Conoco.

Later, the family lived in Honolulu, then Chicago and then Arizona.

Alaska as a final destination

Marge tried living with her son in Dallas and her daughter in rural Virginia, but it turned out that Alaska was more suited to her, despite the weather and her health challenges. When she was in her mid-80s living with her daughter, she ventured out on an icy, bitterly cold morning. When Diana saw her at the bottom of the driveway, Marge explained, "But it's sunny!"

Marge credits faith and her family with buoying her attitude. But it's Marge's sunny disposition that makes a difference in the lives of her loved ones.