Halsey's Typhoon

Guest Author: John E. Jennings, my brother and amateur historian.

After discovering a distant cousin was killed during World War II when his ship went down during a typhoon, I asked my brother to write about the disaster that caused his death. Machinist Mate 1st Class Edward Henkel's name is included on the Walls of the Missing at the American Memorial Cemetery in Taguig City, Philippines.

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Almighty Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,

Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep:

O hear us when we cry to thee

For those in peril on the sea.

This old Royal Navy hymn was popularized in the days of sail, but was still readily on the lips of sailors in the closing stages of World War II, for even ships made of steel and powered by steam-turbines had to take heed of Mother Nature’s wrath. Case in point was the typhoon that struck the United States fleet in the Pacific on 18 December, 1944.

By that late stage of the war U.S. 3rd Fleet, commanded by Admiral William F. Halsey—known by the nickname “Bull” because of his single-minded devotion to attacking the enemy—was an all-conquering force, the most powerful armada ever assembled in history. The fleet consisted of 13 aircraft carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers and about 50 destroyers. They were supported by a Logistics Group (Task Force 30) of tankers, escort carriers and destroyers, ready to resupply the warships at sea so they could remain longer in the combat zone. Just two months before, Halsey’s fleet had destroyed virtually the entire Japanese Combined Fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. But, there was still plenty of fighting left. MacArthur’s army forces had just invaded Mindoro in the Philippines and Halsey’s carriers operated in support of the ground troops, flying attack missions against Japanese air bases in the northern Philippines. By mid-December, though, his ships were running low of fuel, so he took his fleet far to the east into the Philippine Sea, out of range of enemy aircraft, to rendezvous with TF 30 and refuel.

The rendezvous point lay in the typical path of typhoons for that time of year, but all hands were much more concerned about getting back to fighting the Japanese then they were about the potential for storms. Even as the weather started making up on the 17th, little heed was given to what seemed by all data available to be a rather small tropical disturbance. Typhoon Cobra, however, would fool the fleet’s meteorologists; it worked up from a disturbance to a full-fledged typhoon in short order and was so densely packed that it spun off few tell-tale signs. So as Halsey’s fleet steamed toward its refueling rendezvous, nobody realized they were sailing directly into the path of a fierce typhoon. By the early hours of the 18th, as the wind picked up to more than 30 knots, Halsey realized he was “confronted by serious storm conditions.” He cancelled the planned refueling at 0500 hours and ordered his fleet due south into what he thought would be the calmer southern quadrant of the storm. But his meteorologists had miscalculated the storm’s true position, so this course change brought his ships into the worst of the gathering storm. By 1000 the barometer plunged and winds gusted to more than 70 knots. Seas built into pyramid shaped mountains and slammed into the ships. At 1149 Halsey ordered all units to take the most comfortable course, giving up any semblance of fleet formation. Escort carrier Kwajalein hove to in order to reduce the pounding it was taking after rolling so severely she scooped up green water with her flight deck catwalks. On other carriers planes broke their lashings and crashed about the hangar deck, causing fires aboard light carriers Monterey and Cowpens. In total 146 aircraft were lost, either wrecked or heaved overboard.

Waves breaking over a Navy oiler during Typhoon Cobra, better known as
Halsey's Typhoon; courtesy of the National Archives and Records
Administration

But it was Task Force 30, the Logistics Group and easternmost of all the fleet units, that caught the worst of the storm. And the destroyers suffered the most. Hull was a smallish (1370 tons displacement) destroyer of an older design. She had been modified during the course of war, being fitted with over 500 tons of extra equipment and armament on her decks, which made her top heavy. Worse still she had several half empty fuel tanks, which can be dangerous in heavy seas because the ship’s center of gravity changes as the contents shift, a dynamic which tends to exaggerate rolls. Naval regulations at the time did not advise re-ballasting under such conditions, although it certainly would have helped stabilize the ship. Hull’s skipper, Lieutenant Commander J. A. Marks had experienced storms in the North Atlantic, but not a typhoon like the one now bearing down on his little ship. At 1100, with wind increasing to over 100 knots, the TF 30 commander (Captain Jasper. T. Acuff) ordered a course change to 140°. It proved a death knell for Hull. The ship failed to respond during the course change and ‘lay in irons’ with the northerly wind on her port beam. She was pounded by one, two and then three monstrous waves, rolling the ship over to 70° each time. Her whaleboat, depth charges and nearly everything on deck was carried off by the sea. Then a strong gust of 110 knot wind knocked her down and kept her pinned on her beam ends. The pilothouse flooded and sea poured into her inner spaces through the stacks. Hull sank shortly after noon, taking with her all but 62 out of a crew of 264.

Hull was not the only ship to go down on 18 December, 1944 in what has come to be known in naval
annals as “Halsey’s Typhoon.” Destroyers Monaghan and Spence also capsized and sank. Nine other
ships were damaged badly enough to need repairs. 790 men were lost. A board of inquiry placed
responsibility for the losses on Halsey, but assigned no negligence to the admiral, finding that his errors in judgment stemmed from a “commendable desire to meet military requirements.” It was also found that lack of suitable weather stations in the Western Pacific contributed to the ignorance of the fleet to the approaching storm. Within months the Fleet Weather Center was established on Guam and weather stations staffed at various other islands to keep track of tropical storms. Guidelines were put in place for destroyers to re-ballast half-empty fuel tanks and flood empty tanks in certain sea conditions.

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Edward Henkel (1923-1944): Killed During Typhoon Cobra

Jesse Lee Children's Home

My first cousin twice removed, Alexander Eugene Muir (1917-1999) married Minerva B. Hansen sometime before 1940. She was born in Chignik Bay, Alaska, on 3 July 1916 to Lars Antone Hansen and Nancy J. Anderson and was eldest of eight children. Her father was Norwegian and immigrated tot he United States when he was 19 years old. I'm not sure how he ended up in Alaska, perhaps he was drawn by the gold rushes in the Yukon Territory. At the time Lars came to Alaska, it was the newest U.S. territory.

Nancy J. (Anderson) Hansen with her parents and siblings before her marriage
to Lars Anderson; courtesy of Puyulek Pu'irtuq: The People of the Volcanoes!
by Michele Morseth

In 1920 Lars was a fisherman working on his own account. He lived with his in-laws. Nancy's father had come to Alaska from Oregon sometime after 1870 and married a woman whose father was Russian and whose mother was Native American. She was considered a Creole and she and her children were marked as mixed race on all census forms. After Nancy married Lars and they had children, those children were also marked as mixed race on each census form.

Lars died sometime before 1930 and Nancy lived alone with her children. Nancy's daughter, Minerva, migrated to Washington State sometime after that. However, by 1940 Nancy had remarried, worked as a nurse at the local cannery, and lived with her husband, a son by her first husband and two other children she had with her second husband. Another son was a lodger with a local family. However, her remaining five children by Lars lived at the Jesse Lee Orphanage Home in Seward, Alaska.

Jesse Lee Home in Unalaska in 1901; courtesy of Wikipedia

I wondered why she made that decision and I will likely never know, but the Jesse Lee Orphanage had a very interesting history. It was first founded in 1890 in Unalaska as a boarding school. Students were mostly Native American and mixed race children from the Aleutian Islands and the Seward Peninsula. During the Spanish flu pandemic the population of many remote, coastal Native American Villages had been decimated. The boarding school became crowded and its buildings were in serious need of repair. In addition it was expensive to ship food and supplies to the school. It was decided to move the institution to Seward, which was the largest port in the territory. The new site consisted of several acres and several buildings, including a shop, vocational classrooms, a darkroom, library, gymnasium, and dormitories.

During World War II, the children were moved to other locations and the buildings were painted camouflage. A temporary Fort Raymond Army Base occupied part of the orphanage's property. A 1964 earthquake caused extensive damage resulting in the demolition of one of the dormitories. The Methodist Church moved the orphanage to Anchorage and sold the Seward property to the city. The home has remained vacant since that time.

In an interesting bit of trivia the territorial flag was designed by one of the students at the Jesse Lee Home, chosen among 700 other entrants in a statewide contest. The design is now the state flag.

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Creoles: A Social Experiment
Chignik Bay, Alaska

Creoles: A Social Experiment

Minerva B. Hansen married my first cousin twice removed, Alexander Eugene Muir, sometime before the 1940 census was enumerated. Her race on that census was listed as "white." However, she was born in Chignik, Alaska in 1916 and had been enumerated in two previous decennial census. In those census, which were taken in Alaska, her race was listed as "mixed." I discovered her father had immigrated to Alaska from Norway and her mother was the product of a white man from Oregon and an Aleut woman. I learned mixed race people in Alaska were historically referred to as Creole and they had quite and interesting social history.

Russians began exploring Alaska during the reign of Peter I "the Great." Soon after they established trading posts in order to acquire furs from the Native Alaskan people. Eventually, the Russian-American Company was established to maximize the economic potential of Alaska for the benefit of Russia. As a result most of the Russians, who came to Alaska, were men. Michele Morseth explains the Creole Estate in her book, Puyulek Pu'irtuq! The People of the Volcanoes:

"As the number of persons of mixed ancestry...with some education provided through the efforts of their fathers and grandfathers grew, the company established guidelines for a social experiment -- creation of a social stratum with loyalties both to Alaska and to the Russian culture and state. Thus, the Creole estate was officially established...The company recognized that children of Russian males and aboriginal females would create unbreakable bonds between the new colony and the old country. In 1816 the main office of the Russian-American Company explained the program:

'From a political point of view, the ties of the Russians with the Aleuts are nearly essential, both for exposing hostile schemes, and for permanent ties, for the resultant offspring willy-nilly join those Aleuts who are related to the Russians and the children, being christened, will be Russians, and not Aleuts, and so the new generation is permanently Russian...The lack of Russian people in the colonies can be compensated for...Creoles, brought up and educated at the Company's cost and effort, thereafter employed in the various capacities, or carrying on its business, can obtain food and livelihood.

Native Alaskans and Creoles arriving at the cannery in Chignik; courtesy of
the Alaska State Library

The Creoles comprise a particular class and enjoy all the privileges of the lower middle class accorded by Russian law. There is this difference -- they do not pay taxes and are not attached to the government by any formal tie; when they have been educated by the company, they must serve it for a period of ten years. The company has undertaken the education of this class with praiseworthy energy; many Creoles have studied at higher institutions of learning in St. Petersburg or have been instructed in various branches of the arts and sciences. Many have received their education in the colonies and are considered to be almost the equal of the Russians. Most of the Creoles hold responsible positions, among them, for example, are the post of bookkeeper, warehouse overseer, captain's assistant and the position of captain itself, church officials, etc. All Creoles are conversant in Russian, but not with the Aleut nor the Kodiak languages. Their way of life is the same as that of the Russians'."

Native Alaskan family at Chignik; courtesy of the Alaska
State Library

In reality the Creoles of Alaska were in a somewhat ambiguous position. Native Alaskans showed them disrespect as they were products of illegal unions with the natives. Toward the end of the Russian rule, they reversed their Creole policy and encouraged most Creoles to live a native lifestyle.

After the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, most Russian-born men returned home. Some Creoles joined them, but it is believed most stayed in Alaska. Soon after the transfer of Alaska to the United States, scientist, William Dall, referred to Creoles as "half breeds," saying they were "unfit to exercise franchise as American citizens." He failed to realize they were educated and had filled many important positions within the Russian-American Company.

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Morseth, Michele. Puyulek Pu'irtuq! The People of the Volcanoes, (Hong Kong: National Park Service, 1998), pages 1-207

Cignik Bay, Alaska

Chignik Bay, Alaska

Chignik, Alaska, is on the Chignik Bay on the Alaskan Peninsula about 200 miles past Kodiak and above the Aleutian Islands. It is still a remote fishing village in a remote region of Alaska based around two fish plants.

Chignik, Alaska; map courtesy of Chignik Bay Adventures

By the time Minerva B. Hansen[1] was born, Chignik was a growing area and the canneries continued to draw people. A summer school had opened in 1903 on the southside of Chignik Bay where a number of Euroamerican men had begun a new settlement. This is where the community, informally known as Andersonville, was established. It was likely named for George Anderson, Minerva's maternal grandfather. St. Nicholas chapel was on the north side of the bay and the residents of Andersonville would paddle across the bay to attend Orthodox services. Also, on the north side were several Native Aleutian communities.

St. Nicholas chapel in Chignik, Alaska; courtesy of the Alaska State Library

According to Michelle Morseth's book, Chignik Bay "became an early geographical boundary between the new community of immigrant men married to local women, and the local Native community. The distinction between the two communities was soon evident since, for many families, establishment of a separate community meant a rejection of Native culture and Russian Orthodoxy.

The bay continued to support two villages for 13 years. The south side became a permanent year-round village with a school, health clinic, and airstrip. Few residents on the north side survived the 1919 epidemic and the old village was abandoned soon after.

Andersonville circa 1909; image courtesy of the Alaska State
Archives

Father Modestov, an Orthodox priest, visited Chignik Bay in 1909, seven short years before Minerva was born, and left a description of the village on the north side:

"We arrived in Chignik at 10am and were met by the people on the shore. They took us in a boat to Vvendskoe (north side village), which is half an hour away on the other side of the bay. The village consisting of 2-3 barabaras was founded about ten years ago. In 1907/08 upon the priest's requests, the inhabintants built a church in the name of the Entry (vvendeniye) of Virgin Mary into the Temple. Since then the village has grown. Orthodox from Nushagak mission and Afognak parish moved here. People from other villages are also settling down here since there is a number of local conveniences. There is a lot of fuel in the area and it is close at hand; there is an ample supply of salmon; there are stores and a post office, and two fish canneries where people can get jobs. There is a doctor and the priest visits this settlement every year. Eskimos, Aglemiuts and creoles do not have such conveniences in their old places and, therefore, are settling down in Chignik abandoning their old residences."

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'Andersonville circa 1909,' Alaska State Archives
Chignik Bay, Alaska, Chignik Bay Adventures

[1]Minerva B. Hansen was the wife of my first cousin twice removed, Alexander Eugene Muir (1917-1999). They married sometime before 1940 likely in Washington State when Alexander was in the Coast Guard. Minerva's parents were Lars Antone Hansen II and Nancy J. Anderson, whose father came to Chignik in the 1890s and married a creole woman -- someone of Russian and Native Alaskan descent.

Diphtheria: The Plague Among Children

How many times has a family historian seen diphtheria as a cause of death on an ancestors' death certicate? One morning I saw it...yet again. This time for Pearl Ivy Muir, my first cousin twice removed, who died in 1922 at the age of 7, and thought when the heck did they develop a vaccine. I learned after a bit of research, had little Pearl been stricken with diphtheria just four years later, she may have lived.

The first reported diphtheria epidemic occurred in 1613 in Spain. That year became known as "The Year of Strangulations." The disease swept through New England in 1735. It wasn't until 1883 that the club-shaped bacterium was identified and named Klebs-Loeffler bacterium. In 1895 the M. K. Mulford Co. of Philadelphia began production and testing of an antitoxin. By 1905 scientific papers began to be published, which detailed the best known ways to treat diphtheria. However, several children died after being treated with antitoxin and the resulting fear slowed the progress in treating the disease. Bela Schick developed a test to detect preexisting immunity to diphtheria in an exposed person. He advocated only those who had not previously been exposed to the disease should be vaccinated, thereby reducing the number of people who needed the live vaccine. Dr. Schick, with the support of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., waged a 5-year campaign to educate parents about the dangers of diphtheria and why early diagnosis was important. A vaccine was developed in the 1920s and as early as 1924 deaths as a result of diphtheria began to decline.

Children were most vulnerable to diphtheria. In 1925 an outbreak in Nome, Alaska, made national news as the antitoxin was rushed to the remote city by dog sled. The event became known as The Great Race of Mercy. It is now celebrated annually by the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Balto, the lead sled dog became a famous canine celebrity and news coverage helped spur the inoculation campaign that dramatically reduced the threat of diphtheria.

Gunner Kaasen with Balto; courtesy of Wikipedia

Last year in the United States no cases of diphtheria were reported[1]; it is routinely prevented by vaccine and treated with antibiotics. However, it was once a major cause of illness among children. The year before Pearl's death, the U.S. recorded 206,000 cases, resulting in 15,520 deaths. Effective immunization against diphtheria became widely available in the 1920s, just a few years after Pearl died.

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A version of this post first appeared on the Robert Muir Family blog on 7 April 2016, which is the publishing platform for the multi-volume book, Descendants of Robert Muir (c1800-1869). The original version of this post will be published in an electronic book, Volume VII: James Muir (1848-1926) Descendants in June 2016.

[1]A three-year-old girl died in March of this year in Belgium.

Wordless Wednesday: Fish Tales

This is a photograph of my brother Ted, when he was stationed in Alaska with the U.S. Coast Guard and the halibut he caught while fishing from their boat.

Ted Jennings in Alaska with the halibut he caught; from my personal
collection

The idea for this post came from Geneabloggers.com.

Matanuska Colonization Project of 1935

The Matanuska Colonization Project was part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, a series of programs to help the country recover from the Great Depression. It was not the only rural rehabilitation colony, but opinions about Matanuska were greatly divided. It brought praise from some for helping people rebuild their lives and condemnation from others for being a waste of money and dangerous social experiment.

Matanuska colonists from Wisconsin waiting to board the train that will take them to Alaska. Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Public Television

People from the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin were chosen for the Alaska project because the temperatures were most similar. Local aid workers were given loose guidelines for for selecting candidates:

"As far as possible, families should be selected first on their farming ability and secondly, those who may have secondary skills and who may adjust themselves to a diversified farming activity and can assist with carpentry on their homes and then those who may know something about machinery and blacksmithing and who have leadership qualities."

The Matanuska Valley was chosen as the location with the new town of Palmer as the base of operations. The town had been established in 1916 when the railroad was built to the coal mines at Chickaloon. At the time only a hundred families lived in the valley. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) set aside 260,000 acres for the new colony.

Settlers waiting in line for the first land drawing. Photo courtesy of www.Alaskaweb.org

The first contingent of settlers arrived from Minnesota in on May 10, 1935. In the beginning things did not go well. Perishable food was shipped without refrigeration and could not be eaten. School desks arrived before the construction materials needed to build the school. But slowly things began to improve. The government designed five different house plans that could be frame construction or built out of logs. There were no options for barns. Many of the early settlers did not know how to build structures and had to take partially finished buildings down and start over.

So was the project successful? Out of the original 203 families who entered the first drawing for land in 1935 only half remained five years later. But in August 1935, a few months after the first colonists arrived, 903 people were working and earning a salary. But by 1965 only 20 of the original families were still farming in the valley.  The project cost $5 million and 60 percent of the cost was for public works projects.

Kathreen Estelle Gibson and her first husband, William Hecker, and their six children were not among the first colonist living in Palmer, Alaska. But the family was there by 1938 and Kathreen remained in the Matanuska Valley all her life and was considered one of the its pioneers. I wrote about Kathreen here.

Kathreen Estelle (Gibson) Hecker/Huntley/Glatfleder, the second wife of my aunt's sister's husband

To learn more about the Matanuska Colonization Project, a very good program is available from Amazon.com for viewing.

The Bailey Girls

William Judkins (1880-1955) and Lilly Manson (Bradley) Bailey (1884-1949) had eight children of which three were girls -- Elizabeth Lucille (1912-1971), Sylvia Ruth (1915-2000) and Joanna (1921-2010. According to her brother, Maxwell, Joanna changed her name to Joan Evelyn in a special birth certificate issued by then Secretary of State, Cordell Hull. She was my Aunt Joan.

Elizabeth was her parents' fourth child and first daughter. She was born on the family farm in Saline, Michigan.  Sylvia was born three year later also in Saline.  In 1918 the family moved to Anderson, Indiana, where their father likely attended the Anderson Bible School and Seminary Training School. Anderson was also the headquarters of the Church of God's Missionary Board. William Bailey wanted to become a missionary and go to Africa.

In 1920 they drove to New York, and boarded the Cunard Line's RMS Aquitania. The family arrived in Southampton England on 3 Sep. They traveled by ferry to France and by train to Marseilles, crossing the Mediterranean by boat to Cairo and then onto Africa. The family landed in Mombasa and took a train to the Kenyan highlands where William Bailey began his missionary work in then British East Africa.  Joan was born at the Kijabe Mission Station in 1921.

The parents, Elizabeth, Sylvia, Thomas, Maxwell and Joan traveled back to the U.S. in 1929 via India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Vancouver, arriving in Seattle, Washington, on 6 Nov 1929 aboard the cargo ship S/S Paris Maru. Maxwell said the journey took approximately six months.

Osaka Line's cargo ship S/S Paris Maru 

In 1930 the family was living in Troy Township, Ohio. In 1932, William and Lilly Bailey went to Africa again. Another family was asked to move in with the children, but they soon moved away, leaving Elizabeth in charge of her younger brothers and sisters.  Their parents returned in 1934 and divorced soon after.

Elizabeth married later in life to Ted Clayton Glatfelder and moved to Palmer Alaska in the early 1950s.  She ran an orphanage there and Ted worked as a sanitation engineer at Ft Richardson. In 1971 there was a terrible flood in Palmer, and Evelyn and Ted worked hard for days on end to clean up the debris. 

Matanuska River Flood, Palmer, Alaska, 1971. Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Anchorage

Elizabeth had high blood pressure and got a nose bleed that wouldn't stop.  She died six days later in Providence Hospital in Anchorage.  She is buried at Valley Memorial Park in Palmer.  Ted later married Kathreen Estelle Gibson. She came to Alaska in the late 1930s, was 29 years older than Ted and lived to be 100 years old.  He was her third husband. He then married Tiodora Rodriguez and died in 1995. He is also buried in Valley Memorial Park.

Sylvia left Troy, Ohio between 1935 and by 1940 was married to Raymond Speake. They lived in Marbury, Maryland, all their adult lives. Raymond worked at a powder factory, which I assume is the nearby Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indian Head, Maryland. In the 1940s, it was known as the Naval Powder Factory.  In 1949, Sylvia's mother came to live with them.  She died a few weeks later.  All three are buried in Park Hill Cemetery in Marbury.

Joan attended Strayer Business College before marrying Arnold Richard Lange in 1942. 

Arnold and Joan Evelyn (Bailey) Lange, 1942

They lived in Washington, DC and had a daughter.  Then they moved to Lawrence, Kansas. Arnold worked for the Hercules Powder Company's Sunflower Ordnance Works in Sunflower. Hercules was a major producer of smokeless powder for warfare.

Hercules Power Company's Sunflower Ordnance Works in 1945. Photo courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.

By 1950 they were back on the East Coast and built a home on Arnold's parents' farm. They had a son the same year. Arnold retired from the Naval Research Laboratory in 1987. By 1990, Arnold and Joan were living in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Arnold died on Christmas Day 2003 and Joan died on 27 Jul 2010. Both donated their bodies to science.

I wrote this post because I got interested in the family history due to the differences in what the documentation said and family stories. I wrote about that here and here. I wrote about the Baily sons here and will be writing a future post about the parents.

Sunday's Obituary: Kathreen Estelle (Gibson) Hecker/Huntley/Glatfelder

Kathreen Estelle Gibson on the day of her first marriage to William Earl Hecker

Kathreen Estelle (Gibson) Hecker/Huntley/Glatfelder (1893-1983) -- Kathreen Estelle was born June 28, 1893 in Owosso, Michigan. When Kathreen was 14 years old her father, Elbert W. Gibson, a teacher, was drowned attempting to save the life of one of his students who had fallen through river ice. In his brave attempt to rescue his young student from drowning, he was awarded  the Carnegie Medal of Honor posthumously for his bravery.

The Carnegie Medal of Honor provided a monthly stipend of $10.00 for each of his children until they reached the age of 18.

With this money, Kathreen's mother, Elisa Gibson, took her five children (the youngest being six months old), traveled with her brother to the grassy prairies of Alberta, Canada, near the city of Lethbridge, and there settled on her own homestead and built a home for her young family. Kathreen spent her teenage years in Alberta.

Kathreen married Earl Hecker there in 1914. They had six children; June born in Canada, William and Ferne born in North Dakota, Alice in Washington, Barbara and Beverly Joyce in Oregon.

The family moved to Alaska in 1938 where they made their home on a farm here in the Matanuska Valley. Kathreen lost her husband, Earl, in 1947 and eventually married Charles O. Huntley, who died in 1969. She later married Ted Glatfelder*, who has been with her through these last years.

Kathreen has always been active and healthy; she has always enjoyed and loved her family and her many friends. She has been an active member of the Palmer Church of God for many years. She loved to travel and has many family and friends in many places. She leaves her husband, Ted, a sister, Marion Alene Peterson of Wadsworth, Nevada, 6 children, 18 grandchildren, 28 great grandchildren and 2 great great grandchildren, all living.

The idea for this post came from Geneabloggers.com
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*Kathreen's third husband, Ted Glatfelder, was 29 years younger than Kathreen. He cared for her until she died. She was 100 years old at the time of her death and is buried in the Palmer Pioneer Cemetery in Palmer, Alaska.