Daily Sitka Sentinel

Services to be June 6 For Cecilia Borbridge

Cecilia Borbridge

Cecilia Victoria Soxie Borbridge, 92, a longtime Sitka resident, slipped into her angel wings very peacefully on May 26, 2019, in Anchorage, following a brief illness. Her family was by her side.
Services will be 2 p.m. Thursday, June 6, at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi, with Wolfgang Corduan officiating.
Cecilia Victoria Soxie was born Oct. 15, 1926, to Arthur and Victoria (Mulluk) Soxie in Unalakleet, where she remained until traveling to Sitka to attend Sheldon Jackson High School.  There, she met Ted Borbridge. They married Feb. 1, 1952, and remained in Sitka to raise their five children. To her many close friends, she was affectionately called Soxie, her maiden name.  
Cecilia worked for approximately 20 years as a girls dorm aide at Mt. Edgecumbe High School.  Her Inupiat lifestyle and ways of knowing were a valuable asset to many girls who came from afar and became homesick.  She became their voice of understanding, love and compassion, having gone through the same experience herself.  Many of those former students, now adults living throughout the state, still remember Mrs. Borbridge fondly.
Following Mt. Edgecumbe High School, Cecilia worked for Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital Medical Records, retiring in 1985.
She was a member of the Presbyterian Church and, more recently, the Sitka Christian Center.  Her unwavering faith carried her throughout her entire life, to the very end. She was always calm and at peace, despite the many obstacles put in front of her. Her spiritual and physical strength were shown through example to family and friends who knew her.
She was a very skilled crafter, including sewing, knitting and crocheting.  Each of her children, and many friends received their own crocheted afghans, baby blankets or sweaters, and she sewed many of her own clothes as well as her daughters’.  Berry picking, fishing on the family boat, and putting up traditional food were also high on her list of “fun” activities.  She is also one of the original organizers of the community holiday dinners, still held each year in Sitka.
Her husband of 53 years, Ted, son-in-law Larry L. Simmons, brother Daniel Soxie of Unalakleet, and a sister, Esther, preceded her in death.
Survivors include her five children, James, Harold, Alan, Kay and Donald.  Extended family includes nephews Emory and Davis Nashalook, nieces Michelle Chivers of Anchorage and Barbara Redington of Wasilla, Dalene Soxie of Kentucky, sisters Betty Bryant, Jessie Dugan and Viola; of Anchorage, and Janet Ferris of Marysville, Washington.
She is also survived by sister-in-law Emma Borbridge, and children Sandra and Charles Borbridge, Earvin Lott, Mary Sabon and Lloyd Borbridge of Juneau. She had 11 grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren.  
Pallbearers will be her two grandsons, Walter and Darren Borbridge, great-grandson Tyson Ross Jr., and close family friends Herbert Didrickson Jr., and Kyle and Joshua Young.
A reception will immediately follow the service. Those attending are welcome to bring a dish to share, it they can.