NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 22: Ivana Trump attends the 2018 Angel Ball at Cipriani Wall Street on October 22, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images); NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 17: Sarah Palin visits “Extra” at their New York studios at H&M in Times Square on November 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra)

Sarah Palinis fondly remembering her first encounter with the lateIvana Trump.

“My condolences to the Trump family for the loss of the beautiful and gracious Ivana. She was the first Trump I met, back in 1996, when she came to Alaska. I remember standing in line in Anchorage at the J.C. Penney store to meet her during an event to promote her new perfume,” Palin, 58,wrote on Twitterlast week.

She continued, “Always a class act, her legacy will live on in her amazing children@DonaldJTrumpJr,@IvankaTrump,@EricTrumpand grandchildren.”

The meeting happened long before Palin became a polarizing Republican politician, when she was just a “commercial fisherman from Wasilla,” as theAnchorage Daily Newsidentified her in a 1996 story about Trump’s visit.

According to the article, the former governor of Alaska told her then-husband Todd Palin that she was headed to Costco — instead of to JCPenney.

‘‘We want to see Ivana because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture," Palin told the newspaper at the time.

The former vice presidential nominee also shared with the outlet that she “smells like salmon for a large part of the summer.”

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Sonia Moskowitz/Getty

NEW YORK, NY - 1982: Ivana Trump and Donald Trump are seen in December 1982 in New York City. (Photo by Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)

Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016, andin April, the former president returned the favor, as she re-enters politics in a bid for Alaska’s sole congressional seat.

Trump called Palin the “wonderful patriot” in astatementannouncing his endorsement.

“Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big. Now, it’s my turn.”

source: people.com