Vivian Aho

Feb 15, 1933 -

Aug 8, 2025

Vivian Jeanne Aho, 92, passed away in her sleep on Aug. 8, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska.

Vivian spent her childhood in Seattle, Wash., where she was born on Feb. 15, 1933. She had one older stepsister but was otherwise an only child.

During the spring of 1954, she met the love of her life on a short trip to Anchorage. Within a few months she decided to quit her job as a switchboard operator, leave her hometown, and marry Stanley W. Aho.

Stan was a trapper and prospector who spent summers working his gold mining claim near Aho Lake in the foothills of the Tordrillo Mountains and winters in a small log cabin at Canyon Lake near the Skwentna River. Although Vivian had always lived in a big city, she didn't hesitate to climb into a small bush plane and spend her first winter in Alaska isolated from the rest of the world - an adventure she would later recall as one of her fondest memories.

The following summer the couple returned to Anchorage, just in time for the birth of their daughter, Doris. Their son, Thomas was born in 1956, followed by Ronald in 1961. By then the family had settled in Anchorage and spent the 1960s and 70s living in the mostly undeveloped Huffman and Rabbit Creek area.

Vivian was a kind and generous mother, and a wonderful cook. Having lost her mother to tuberculosis at age 10 and subsequently being abandoned by her father, she long searched for belonging—something she finally found in Alaska and in her marriage.

Her life was never easy, but it was rich in love and full of good meals. Over the years she worked as a cook and waitress at numerous restaurants, including the old Rabbit Creek Inn and H&H Lakeview near Talkeetna. In the early 1980s, while the family lived in Seldovia, she owned and operated the Harbor Inn Cafe.

Vivian had a green thumb and loved gardening, filling her yard with flowers and her greenhouse with tomato plants. She also enjoyed crocheting and learned to quilt from the women of the Funny River Quilters while living in Soldotna.

A couple of years after Stan passed away, Vivian moved back to Anchorage to be closer to her daughter, who provided endless love and support whenever it was needed.

Vivian requested that her ashes be spread over Aho Lake, where her late husband's ashes were released years earlier.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Doris and Doug Hodgson of Anchorage; son and daughter-in-law, Ronald and Dunya Aho of Kenai; sister-in-law Mary Jane Hernandez of Lafayette, Calif.; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and extended family across the U.S. and Germany.