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Maxine was born on December 31, 1926, to Huse and Violet McKinney of Medford, Oregon. She attended Medford Senior High School, where she was student body secretary and graduated with the Class of 1945.
It was during this time that she met her husband-to-be for the next 58 years, Robert “Bob” Holifield. In 1947 the couple was married in Ballard, Washington, with family and friends present. After a short honeymoon, Robert and Maxine set off on an adventure to Alaska, where Robert would begin a career with the Alaska Highway Patrol.
During the time of her husband’s law enforcement career, the couple was stationed throughout communities in Alaska including Anchorage, Haines, Juneau, Delta Junction, Fairbanks, and finally Soldotna, where Robert retired as the Chief of the Soldotna Police Department.
While living in Alaska, Maxine worked for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, as a radio dispatch operator, a library assistant, and an election precinct volunteer for national, state, and local elections.
Maxine was an avid reader and it was this love for books that led her to work at the public libraries in the various communities where the couple was stationed. Also, she was an animal lover and over the years provided a home for numerous personal pets and neighborhood “strays.”
“No stray animal will go unfed!” was her motto.
And if the situation presented itself, she could often be found feeding moose by hand over the fence in her back yard. Maxine was a grand storyteller and would entertain anyone who was a willing listener about current events or stories of her adventures in Alaska.
Maxine attended the Sterling United Pentecostal Church, where she was baptized and received the Holy Ghost. She expressed numerous fond memories of the times she shared with her faith family in both her home and at church.
After the death of her husband Bob in 2005, Maxine continued to live in Soldotna until, after 66 years in Alaska, she moved to Bonners Ferry in 2013 to live closer to her son, Brad.
Maxine is survived by her son Brad Holifield and his wife Connie, grandchildren Jeanne Holifield of Anchorage, Alaska, and John Holifield of Bothell, Washington, and her brother, Ive McKinney and his wife Joyce, and family of Redding, California.