Tamara Joyan Westcott, Sitkan, Dies at Age 61

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Thursday, 22 August 2024 13:53

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Tamara Joyan Westcott

Tamara Joyan Schram and her twin sister, Kamala Franci, were born in Salinas, California, on November 20, 1962.
As little girls, they lived in Pacific Grove with their mother, Vaughn. They  had fond memories of visiting their grandma’s restaurant, The Halfway Inn, on the Big Sur Highway in Gorda, California. Later, they moved to Leavenworth, Washington, before relocating to Spokane so their mother could attend nursing school.
Like many twins, Tamara and Kamala formed a close bond, relying on each other to navigate a world largely independent of adult supervision. The twins began working as young teenagers, and at 16 Tamara was the first person in her circle of friends to buy a car: a 1976, red, white, and blue Gremlin.
Shortly after graduating from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Tamara immigrated to Alaska, working for Pelican Cold Storage in 1982, beginning a lifelong connection to commercial fishing and the Alaska seafood industry. Kamala joined her in Pelican the following year. Never were there prettier twins to walk down that boardwalk!
  Among the many paths her life took, Tamara worked as the crab plant foreman in Pelican, and as a waitress in Naknek, Alaska. She spent a summer as a deck hand for Steve Meier aboard the freezer troller F/V Aquila, and longlined for halibut aboard the F/V Fury with her sister and brother-in-law. She bartended at the old Pilot House in Sitka and worked as the office manager for Northland Services and Seafood Producers Co-op. She also drove a cab for Tidal Taxi.
Tamara was a skilled artisan, whether as a painter, boat builder, stained glass artist, or making a rocking horse for her children, nephews, and grandnephews to ride on. She also made custom Alaskan clocks for family and friends.
The love of her life, Mark Morley, skipper of the F/V La Conte, perished along with another crewman during a storm in the Gulf of Alaska in January 1998. She was pregnant with her second child at the time of the tragedy.     
Tamara, who had unending energy and spirit, and who will be loved and deeply missed by family and friends, succumbed to cancer on July 29.
She is survived by her mother, Vaughn Westcott, of Sitka; her sister, Kamala Carroll and brother-in-law Christopher Carroll, of Sitka; children Kyla Westcott of Silverdale, Washington, and Mark Morley Jr., of Kent, Washington; nephews Elias and Joshua Carroll, Sitka; and grandnephews Bentley Duncan, and Ezra Carroll, both of Sitka.

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