Obituary of Virgina Jane Holland

Virginia Jane Holland of Yankton, SD (previously from Alaska) passed away under hospice care, Friday, July 29, 2016 at Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, Yankton, SD. On-line condolences may be sent at www.opsahl-kostelfuneralhome.com. Virginia was born April 11, 1937 in Phoenix, AZ to Taft and Ramona (Roth) Allen. At a young age, her family moved to Los Angeles, CA. She was accepted and wanted to attend Stanford, but because of her recent spinal surgery, her mother wanted her close to home. She attended Occidental College and then later transferred to UCLA. After graduating, she worked for Western Airlines and then Rockwell Aeronautics. In 1970, she left her job and moved to Alaska and lived in Palmer, Wasilla and Anchorage. In Alaska, she was a commercial fisherman on Cook Inlet and also started her own business as a tax and estate planning advisor. She worked for the City of Anchorage, for the U.S. Interior Department and for the U.S. Treasury Department as an I.R.S. Revenue Officer and then as a U.S. Customs Inspector. In 1983, she became the first female investigator for the Alaska Alcohol Control Board. Virginia married her husband, Dan Holland on January 12, 1985 in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1986 she left her job to move with her husband to San Juan, Puerto Rico and then to Seattle before returning to Anchorage in 1993. In 2010 she and her husband moved to the Yankton, SD area. Her proudest achievements were completing a marathon, winning a “Best in Show” with her Chow dog “Kirby”, one of her numerous champion chows she owned and handled at dog shows for decades and achieving her private pilot’s license. She owned two Taylorcraft planes, one of which she crashed and totaled in Alaska. She also owned and piloted her prize Citabria. Virginia was a member of the Anchorage Rabbit Creek Baptist Church, Civil Air Patrol, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Alaska Peace Officers Association, National Chow Club, ASPCA and NRA Life Member. During her last several years in Anchorage, she served as a volunteer on the surgery floor and as a bedside visitor of terminal patients at Providence Hospital. Virginia is survived by her husband, Dan of Yankton, SD; son, Rob Tracy of Wasilla, AK; daughter, Nancy Tyler of Corpus Christi, TX; sister, Joan Sykes of Mexico and four grandchildren