Deborah Rose Nye
On June 25, 2016, Deborah Rose Nye of the Olday Road at McNeil Canyon suddenly passed from this life. Nye was the first baby born in the new year of 1952 at the Canandaigua, N.Y., hospital. She grew up Nye Schuyler at Naples in the Finger Lakes region of New York. In 1976 she met her future husband Willy down on the Seneca Reservation at Salamanca, New York.
The next year she and son Aubrey followed Willy and his dream to a small village on Kodiak Island. It was there second son Zachar was born at the beach house she called home at the time. Then it was on to Homer where they wintered in Wilson’s 16-foot-by-24-foot homestead log cabin, the site of their future long-time permanent home.
In search of new adventure she and the two boys followed Willy to Fairbanks, where they stayed, while Willy cooked at Deadhorse. J.Maitland was born that summer in the rented dome she found overlooking the big city from above Farmer’s Loop Road.
On September 19, 1981, during a weeklong vacation at Barrow, Alaska, Nye married Willy with friends and three sons attending. Soon after the wedding, the family traveled to Seward where they boarded the ferry “Trusty Tusty”, and sailed to Kodiak. The young family was growing, the king crab boom was over, other fisheries were faltering, and it wasn’t long before a final move happened, back to Homer, where Gedediah was also born at home.
After Ged came along Nye planted her feet and refused to move again. She and Willy purchased and operated the old Willow Wind restaurant on Ocean Drive until 1986, when Willy built her the dome house on the old Wilson homestead that Nye enjoyed until her dying day. After the boys were settled into Elementary school Nye rejoined the work force in the service industry.
Over the years in Homer and Valdez she was the “surly” breakfast waitress that didn’t drink coffee. She worked at most all of them: Land’s End, Best Western, Oscar’s, and Fat Olive’s. She was the bar manager who brought Hobo Jim to the Beluga, pizza delivery to Fat Rack and kept Willy’s charter boat clean and full of people. She did it all to help pay the bills.
By 2010 Nye had settled into semi-retirement, tending her beloved gardens and fishing with Willy.
For her birthday in 2013 her husband bought her another job – The big yellow EAT truck. Nye loved taking her skills on the road hitting Salmonfest, the Ninilchik State Fair, and the Kenai River Festival. Nye lived her life at full throttle, never using the brakes.
She was a catcher of fish, and an extraordinarily good cook and entertainer. Most of all, Nye loved all her boys and her husband and the joy they gave her. She is missed by all she worked with and knew through the years.
Nye is survived by her husband of all those years, Willy of Homer, sons Aubrey Moses of Bellingham, Wash., Zachar, J.Maitland, and Gedediah, all of Homer; grandsons Bodhj Daniel of Homer, Asher and Orion Moses of Bellingham, Wash; granddaughters Bella Marette of Minnetonka, Minn.; Saylor Moses of Bellingham,Wash.; daughter-in-law Emily Chalup of Homer, Mother Martha Schuyler of Lakeland, Fla, and brother Steve Schuyler of Lone Tree, Colo.
A celebration of Nye’s Life will be held at the family home 36975 Maria Ct. on Sunday, Sept. 4 starting about 2 p.m. Please bring a memory and dish to share and flowers — Nye loved flowers!