Samme spent the last years of her career working in the office of a nursing home in Pasadena, before retiring at age 65.  During these years and following her retirement, Samme loved to travel and visited Europe three times, as well as Scandinavia, China, Japan, Phillipines, Canada and Mexico.  Una and David had retired to Hemet, CA, as had Aileen, while Geri was living in Santa Monica. After retiring, Samme and Aileen lived together for many years in several different homes and locations, ending up back in Hemet, where David had lived alone since Una's passing in 1973.

When it seemed unwise for David to continue living alone, in 1993 his daughter Geri suggested they all move to Thousand Oaks together, to be near family and provide closer companionship for David.  Within a year, however, Aileen and David had both passed away, and Samme lived alone in a condo for four years before moving in with Geri and family in 1998.

Soon after moving in, she began talking and dreaming of going back to visit Alaska, and she made a trip to Alaska with Geri's family in 1999, which included a raft trip down the Copper River and finding the abandoned cabin where she, Aileen and Slim had lived in 1927.  Following that trip, she also began dreaming of writing a book about the years she spent there as a teen.

So, at age 87, she acquired her first computer and began making notes for the book that was to become Sisters: Coming of Age and Living Dangerously in the Copper River Valley.   She returned to Alaska every summer but one for the next 11 years, driving alone or with a companion, and ferrying along the Inside Passage.  During these trips she met many wonderful people whose friendships she enjoyed and cherished throughout the past 15 years.

Samme also used her computer for genealogical research, in order to authenticate and flesh out the stories told her by her mother about her great-grandparents. This helped her to write her second book, Captives: Sold for a Horse and a Mule, the account of her great-grandmother's abduction by Comanches and eventual rescue and marriage to mountain man John Hawken. 
  
Above all, Samme was a natural storyteller and was frequently found writing stories on her computer.  In addition to the books mentioned above, she also wrote Moonlight Madness, a book of short stories about Alaska, most of which were inspired by tales she heard at roadhouses and from others when she lived in Alaska.  Her last book, Apache Spring and Other Short Stories, is a collection of stories inspired by various episodes in her life and her travels around the U.S. During the last days of her life, she spoke several times of longing to get back to her computer and write down some of the new stories that were still forming in her active imagination. 

She had a full and varied life, and she loved meeting people and making friends. Many of you who are reading this will also know that Samme was a proficient emailer, and kept in touch that way with friends all over the country. She would love to know how the all of the good qualities she expressed will continue to bless the world through everyone who knows and remembers her. 

Samme is survived by her niece, Geri; her daughter-in-law, Suzanne Darnall, who lives near Seattle, Washington; a grandson, Eric and his two great-grandchildren, and two granddaughters -- Shannon, who lives in New York City, and Rebecca, who lives in Washington. 

After high school, a brief marriage, and a short stint in state college, Samme began working as a bookkeeper.  Over the next two decades, she worked in several different businesses and industries in Fresno and in Los Angeles, including Sears Roebuck, and later Douglas Aircraft during WWII.  She also studied voice and opera theatre and performed in one professional performance, to good reviews.

In 1952 she met widower and veteran flyer Carl Darnall in Fresno, and became his wife and a mother to his 9-year-old son Clark.  They ultimately settled in Glasgow, Montana, where they owned the local airport and operated a crop-dusting business.  Because this was seasonal work, they needed to supplement their crop-dusting income.  They decided to buy a home in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Puget Sound, and bought and converted a boat to fish for salmon in the off-season.

After Carl passed away in 1967, Samme moved to San Rafael, California, where her sister Una lived with husband David and daughter Geri. She bought a house with her older sister Aileen and lived there for about three years before deciding to head south to Los Angeles again.    
 

Samme was the 3rd and youngest daughter of Blanche Gillham Gallaher and Samuel LeRoy Gallaher (usually known as Roy), who settled in Fresno, CA when Samme was still a baby.  Hoping for a son who could be named after him, her father stuck to his guns and named his 3rd child Samme, a variation of Samuel.  From all the family stories, she was an adventurer right from the start -- a fearless toddler who would take off on her own at every opportunity! 

She did not enjoy school very much, due in part to some run-ins with teachers which stemmed from the misdeeds of others and always being expected to live up to the excellent grades and deportment of her older sisters.  She always had a big heart full of compassion, though, and would regularly be kind to other kids who needed a friend, or defend kids who were being bullied or suffering discrimination.  

A hugely defining event in her life occurred at age 15, when her oldest sister, Aileen, asked their parents to let Samme come live in Alaska with her and her husband, Slim Williams, in a cabin in the Copper River Valley.  There she learned to drive a dog team, shoot a rifle and hunt caribou, and many other skills required to live in the wilderness year round.  (If you know Samme, you may already have read her book, Sisters: Coming of Age and Living Dangerously in the Copper River Valley, which tells the story of her adventures in Alaska in 1927-28 and again when she returned in 1929-30.)

When she returned to Fresno from Alaska the second time to complete her last year of high school -- being older than the other students and much matured by her experiences -- she became a celebrity, as well as a straight-A student.