Beryl Myhill

Aug. 10, 1926- April 14, 2017

Beryl Myhill, 90, died April 14, 2017. “She passed from this world on to her Heavenly Home on Good Friday,” her family said.

A memorial service is at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 6, 2017, at the Salvation Army Homer Corps, 1468 Sterling Highway. For information, please call Captain Christin Fankhauser at 235-2609.

Bessie Beryl Overlin was born Aug. 10, 1926, in Fairburn, S.D. The youngest child of Ethyl Aleta Scott and William Willard Overlin, she had five brothers and two sisters: Edgar, Paul, Darrel, Lela, James and Marie, all of whom preceded her in death. She married Howard Myhill in 1945. He passed away in Homer in 1997. Her son Bryan died two years later. Beryl is survived by her sons Dale, Leon, Loren and David; 11 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and her five beloved daughters-in-law.

In 1944, she left her home in South Dakota, sailed by steamship to Alaska, was dropped off on the beaches of Anchor Point, walked the beach to Homer dodging the incoming tides (there was no road), to help and assist a single missionary lady and her young son. There she met and married her husband Howard, pioneered a town with no electricity, running water, sewer or hospital, pioneered a church in her basement (Homer Assembly of God), helped build a local business (Homer Rexall Drugs), helped establish the Homer Little Theatre, and was co-founder of the Homer Concert Association bringing classical music to Homer.

As a young girl she dreamed of sailing the Queen Mary to Europe visiting and meeting exotic people, cultures and landmarks. Instead, she found herself in a small village on the end of the Kenai Peninsula, where she invested her life in developing community and culture (artistically and spiritually) and building a town that thousands of visitors frequent yearly, thousands call “home” and hundreds who were raised there say, “Those were the best years of my life.”

Her sons just want to say, “Mom, thank you for investing in our character and spiritual development, thank you for raising us in Homer, and thank you for doing your part in making it the ‘Most Beautiful Place on Earth.’ We love you, Mom. See you soon.”

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Beryl’s memory to Alaska Bible Institute, 1295 Mission Road, Homer, Alaska 99603, 907-235-8648.