FAIRBANKS -- About 200 people attended a memorial service for Lu Young, the wife of U.S. Rep. Don Young.

The memorial was held Friday at Sacred Hearth Cathedral in Fairbanks, and drew friends, family, politicians and Alaska Native leaders.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the couple's daughter, Dawn Young Vallely, gave the eulogy. In it, she described her mother as a talented caregiver and the most important person in her life.

"I was never lonely," Vallely said. "I was never afraid. I always knew I could call her. I want to do that for my children."

A picture of Lu Young wearing a red hooded sweat shirt was displayed. After the service, the Republican congressman and his two daughters greeted every mourner. He told a mourner he felt like he lost his right arm.

Lu Young died at age 67 of natural causes at the couple's home in Virginia on Aug. 1. They had been married 46 years.

Another memorial is planned Tuesday in Anchorage.

Lu Young, the third of 10 children, was a bookkeeper in Fort Yukon almost half a century ago when she met Young, who was a schoolteacher at the time. Later, she was a fixture in her husband's congressional office, welcoming visitors from Alaska, mourners said.

State Rep. John Harris, a Valdez Republican, recalled a visit, when a rumor was circulating that he planned to challenge Young, Alaska's sole congressman, in the Republican primary.

"The first thing that Lu said when I walked in the office is, 'Are you running against us?' I said, 'No ma'am,'" Harris recalled.

Vallely told mourners of her mother's unabashed affection toward her father.

"She'd go into his office. She'd put her arms around him and she'd kiss him. She didn't care who was there," she said.

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