Sarah Palin Stood in Line at an Anchorage JCPenney to Get Ivana Trump's Autograph in 1996

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 Palin is fondly remembering her first encounter with the late Ivana 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 Twitter last week.

She continued, "Always a class act, her legacy will live on in her amazing children @DonaldJTrumpJr, @IvankaTrump, @EricTrump and grandchildren."

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The meeting happened long before Palin became a polarizing Republican politician, when she was just a "commercial fisherman from Wasilla," as the Anchorage Daily News identified 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.

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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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Trump was in town to promote her House of Ivana perfume at the store, according to the outlet, and was accompanied by her second husband, Riccardo Mazzucchelli, whom she was married to from 1995 to 1997. About 500 people waited in line to meet the former Olympic skier and one-time right-hand woman to ex-husband Donald and get an autographed photo, the outlet reported.

Sonia Moskowitz/Getty

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Palin endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016, and in 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 a statement announcing his endorsement.

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