Gigi Immingan

Jeannette “Gigi” Louise Ootowana Soolook Immingan

June 17, 1965 ~ Nov. 9, 2019

Jeannette “Gigi” Louise Ootowana Soolook Immingan suddenly passed away surrounded by her family on Saturday, November 9, 2019 at the age of 54 in Nome, Alaska. 

Gigi was born in Nome on June 17, 1965 to Jack and Lorena “Tiny” Carpenter. Gigi was the second oldest of the four Carpenter girls, Christine, Marlene and Tiffany. Gigi’s father’s banking career had the Carpenter family relocating throughout Alaska including Nome, Barrow, Kotzebue, Fairbanks and Anchorage. The Carpenter family made their final move and settled in Nome when Gigi was in Junior High. Through the Carpenter travel journeys, Gigi made lifelong friends in each area she lived. 

Through her childhood and adult life, Gigi had several nicknames: Gi, Geeg, Fifi, Auntie, and later she wore the badge of Auntie-Gramma proudly. Summers were one of Gigi’s favorite childhood memories. Along with her siblings and many cousins, summers were spent in Tanana with their Gran, Tiny’s mother. Many epic adventures took place from 1980’s home perms to swimming in the Yukon River. When Gran moved to Fairbanks, so did the summer visits. Some of the best summer memories were spent in the hot sun at the racetrack watching her cousin race and jet skiing in the river.

While attending school in Nome, Gigi was very active in cheer. She often lost her voice every weekend cheering on the Nanooks. Later, much later, she became a proud cheer mom (and still lost her voice). After High School, Gigi played on Betty Ann’s softball team as one of the “bad ass” pitchers. After many injuries and several beers later she finally ‘retired’.

Gigi loved her husband David and children with her heart and soul. Her family was her entire world. Gigi was overjoyed when her oldest daughter, Brittney Rose was born. Blessings continued as Gigi and David welcomed their precious daughters Bailey Julianna, Kelsey Louise and Avery Iris. Each one of her daughters had a special bond and relationship with their Mom. Gigi often bragged about her children to anyone and everyone. In 2010, when Brittney married Justin Heinrich, Gigi gained a son whom she lovingly trained to call her “hot momma” and refused to answer to anything else. 

Gigi married the love of her life and best friend, David Immingan. The two of them were inseparable and loved to ‘jam out’ to Motley Crue together and were lucky enough to attend many of their concerts in Vegas. Although Gigi’s new love was metal, she was known to sing any one of the Judds or Patsy Cline songs but we all knew her first love was Elvis. Gigi and David enjoyed spending time at home with their kids playing video games, watching movies and at times their nights would end up in a dance party.  Her favorite TV shows were Ridiculousness and binge watching Netflix. She would often snuggle with her kids and crave the attention of her grand-dog, Oots and bribe him with a treat for a second of his love.

Life certainly threw her some curveballs but she was always up to the task of meeting those challenges, including the ones she set for herself. Gigi loved to learn and decided to move her and Brittney to Fairbanks to better her education where she obtained a Certification in Business that she was very proud of. Some of her career adventures included bartending for the Bering Sea Saloon, working for the State of Alaska, Kawerak and recently landing a job she truly enjoyed at Alaska Airlines. 

Gigi loved being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend. She shared her spirit with many and had nicknames for almost everyone in her life. Her smile was a gift that would light up a room and her giggle will be remembered by many. Gigi had several pet peeves such as the taste and smell of peppermint, wine breath, negative people, Bailey stealing her clothes, telling her kids to do things a million times, rudeness, driving, roundabouts, and, okay, who are we kidding, just being a passenger in a car drove her nuts. Gigi enjoyed camping, fishing and spent many hours in her lifetime cutting up moose, fish, seal, walrus or any other game that was brought to her to harvest. Gigi loved to cook and was a foodie at heart. She loved a good steak and often shared many photos on social media of her meals and she would often make a ‘slurp’ noise before taking her first bite following with a comment of “delish”. Gigi also loved to crochet and knit. Each one of her family and extended family members proudly wore one of her knitting projects with extras to spare.

Like her father, Gigi was known for her interest in weather and coffee. Every morning we could count on her morning social media post saying “Good Mmmorning Peeps”, along with the daily weather report followed by a coffee meme (or several, depending on the day). She would check in with family and friends via text or Facebook message asking “what doing” and she would often reply with an “Ahdee”, “Ewww” or telling us to “kooniks those cheeks for me” when referring to the many kiddos she adored, especially her “cupcake”.

Gigi was an avid entrepreneur at heart selling anything from Tupperware to beauty products. Her new love for the last two years was Paparazzi.  Oh, how she loved her “bling”. She spent many weekends doing Facebook Live, welcoming her “peeps” and making us smile as she would share her hot flashes with us and her giggle when she realized her item number was upside down. During her Facebook Live sessions, she was known to say “sorry ‘bout it”, “one and done”, and “bling-a-licious”. Her regulars know how much she loved pearls. She would say “pearls are everything”.  Gigi was ecstatic when she received the Paparazzi Life of the Party Award at the Paparazzi Convention in Vegas. When she would travel she would leave a small sample of bling with hotel and waitstaff.

Gigi gave so much love to everyone. She shared her positive spirit and never ending encouragement with others. Even through her illness, she kept a smile and would say she was okay even when she was in a lot of pain.

The Nome Nugget

PO Box 610
Nome, Alaska 99762
USA

Phone: (907) 443-5235
Fax: (907) 443-5112

www.nomenugget.net

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