SOCIAL NOTES
— Homemaking —
Happenings About Town
— Gardening —
Of This and That
By BETHA D1GREE
Our congratulations to Ed and
Tenora Rockney, owners of the
Frontier Shop and Shoe Box . . .
Ed and Tenora, who came to Ko
diak 14 years ago, celebrated their
40th wedding anniversary on June
2 . . . Several friends joined them
in the festivities at a dinner party
at the Town Club Thursday eve
ning ... v
Mrs. Polly Mailutin and grand
daughter, Olivia Huey, left on the
Expansion Tuesday for Seward.
They will be house guests of Mrs.
Malutin’s daughter, Mrs. A1 Choui
nard, and her family for an indefi
nite time . . : '
We extend our very best wishes
for success to the new business
ventures in town ... To Bob La
Follette, attorney, who opened his
law office in the National Bank of
Alaska Building this week ... To
Anna Mueller, who has taken over
Mar Lou’s and will operate the
dress shop under the name “Anna’s
Apparel” . . . And to Sears, Roe
buck & Co., who opened their new
Catalog Sales Store Thursday . . .
Good luck to each one of them ...
—o—o—o— !
Lou and Ginger Veerman will,
no doubt, be rather lonely the next 1
3 or 4 weeks . . . Their daugh
ters, Gretchen and Linda, left
Tuesday to visit their grandpar
ents, Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Van Gilder,
in Ketchikan . . .
Miss Helen Preussing, teacher
in the public schools, left Tuesday
to spend the summer vacation in
Minnesota . . .
Harry Gottschalk tells us that
members of a hunting party he
took to Afognak Island last week
were all lucky . . . Joe Sleven,
Naval Station, bagged an 11 foot
bear; Jerry Brockman, who is with
Philco Corp. at Chiniak Tracking
station, got a 9 footer, while Bill
Kopp of Oakland, California, got
one that measured 8 feet . . .
Something is missing along our
street these days ... No dust!
Even the messy tar (or oil) is
much better than those clouds of
choking dust we usually have . . .
At least we can see where we are
going . . .
A_A_A
We were especially pleased to
learn that Norman Smith had been
awarded a scholarship by Linfield
College . . . Norman is now a
member of the Kodiak Mirror
staff, and we will be sorry to lose
him when he leaves to go to col
lege . . .
Miss Bagley Weds Ltjg Ernest Marsh
Miss Marjorie Ann Bagley,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earl
Barnett of Diagonal, Iowa, and
Ltjg Ernest George Marsh, USCG,
were married May 22 at Our Lady
Star of the Sea Chapel, Kodiak
Naval Station. Cdr. Stewart P.
Robinsofi, Protestant chaplain, of
ficiated at the double ring cere
mony.
The bride, wno was given in
marriage by Lt. James R. Sutton,
Chaplain of CB-9, wore a gown of
jre-emfbroidered white lace with
high neckline with a sequins-bor
dered tiny collar, fitted bodice
and log sleeves. The full, ankle
length skirt was fashioned in
three tiers with a bustle bow at
the waist. Her shoulder length
veil was attached to a coronet of
white sequins and seed pearls. She
carried a 'bridal bouquet of pink
roses.
Miss Mary Lennox, bridesmaid,
wore a full skirted, ballerina
length gown of pale pink embroid
ered net over matching taffeta
and carried pink roses.
Miss Doris Wardlaw sang “Be
cause” and “O, Perfect Love,” ac
companied by Mrs. Rosalie Taylor,
organist.
Ltjg James F. Wyatt acted as
best man for the groom and ushers
were Ldcr. Thomas L. Fallon,
Ldcr. Donald R. Vaughn and Ltjg
James Napier, all fellow Coast
Guard officers.
Miss Betty Harlor had charge
Early Days In Kodiak Are Recalled
By Former Health Nurse Marion Lynch
By Miriam J. Angell
Kodiak, for many years a small
village of stabilized population,
mostly fishermen and a few busi
nessmen, expanded suddenly to
around fifteen hundred people,
with the construction boom that
brought the military base to Wom
an’s Bay. By 1943 Kodiak Island
was an island fortress, upwards of
twenty thousands of men garrison
ed in and around what is now
known simply as The Base, and
that-a-way.” Mrs. Lynch found her
new home a satisfactory building,
and, most to her liking, without
a telephone. There were hardly
any phones on the island then, per
haps three or four strung up for
calls to central points in town
and to the base.
“The difference in housing in
1943 was very marked. People who
came in with the construction
boom had put up the weirdest
little shacks and tent houses and
MRS. MARION LYNCH
around Fort Greely, Fort Aber
crombie and other more remote
areas.
In August of 1943 Mrs. Marion
Lynch arrived to begin service as
the island’s Public Health nurse.
Homesick for the woods and
waters of Minnesota, she had ap
plied for a po9t in Alaska (a nebu
lous assignment since there* was
no choice of area), had been sent
first to southeastern Alaska as an
itinerant nurse and then had been
directed to Kodiak. Transportation
to these parts was very difficult
in wartime; she managed to thumb
a ride on a Navy plaue whose
pilot could allow her only one
suitcase.
There was no one on hand to
meet her but she got into town
and to the bank where an official
handed her the key to the Public
Health Center and pointed, “It’s
of the guest book which was signed
by guests as they entered the
chapel.
Guests at the reception held at
the Alaskan Room, Officers Club,
were served champagne and fruit
punches. The three-tiered tradi
tional wedding cake was cut with
a sword by the bride and groom.
Mrs. Marsh is a graduate of Diag
onal, Iowa, High School and of
Northwest Missouri College. She
arrived in Kodiak in February to
teach a third grade class in the
Naval Station school.
Ltjg Marsh, the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Ernest Otto Marsh, Hanford,
California, is a graduate of the
United States Coast Guard Acad
emy, class of 1956. He has been
stationed with the CG Air Detach
ment at Kodiak Naval Station since
September, 1959.
The young couple went to the
mainland on their wedding trip,
visiting Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Upon their return they will live
in Kodiak.
Mrs. Ernest 0. Marsh, mother
of the groom, attended the wed
ding. While here she was the house
guest of Ltjg and Mrs. James F.
Wyatt.
were still living in them. It was
most interesting to watch the vicis
situdes in housing — practically
anything rentable was rented.
Then with contsruction over, there
came a slump and the worst of
the slum housing disappeared.
When the war was over and the
wives of the military could join
their husbands, people doubled up
and everything was occupied.
Rents were outrageous. Of course
the town had far fewer houses
than it does today.
“During the time when so many
thousands of men were stationed
here one of the sights I remember
most vividly was the daily liberty
round-up. Between five and eigbt
bhirty each evening a certain group
would be allowed to come into
town. They came in hordes. Ladies
stayed indoors those few hours,
but sometimes I had a call to make.
I learned very soon that you could
WOMEN
Could you use some extra money?
House of Stewart Cosmetics
PAY HIGH CASH COMMISSIONS PLUS BONUS.
No canvassing — No cash investment.
Branch manager will be in Kodiak to train.
For appointment phone 2904
'ptOHtie* Second 0?tuven
and Sfofi
Striking New Pottery
HAPPY TALK conversation pieces
in black and white . . .
GOLD BRUSH — ANTIQUE LAVA
Phone 2631
9-6 weekdays — 10-6 Friday
walk easily throu^i the streets if
you kept an absolute poker face.
I zig zagged to avoid congested
areas hut often a small group of
men followed me saying the most
ridiculous and comical things, just
hcping I would answer and talk
to them.
At eight-thirty, (later it was
changed to the late hour of nine
fifteen) the military police started
at one end of town and literally
herded the men through the streets
to the trucks that returned them
to the base. There was always a
great din; it was like a state fair.
‘There was no harm in those
fellows; they were all very anxious
just to talk to a woman and to be
invited into a normal home, but
this could not work out numerical
ly. Perhaps one in a thousand ever
was invited into a Kodiak home."
We asked about the problems of
a Public Health nurse in those
days.
‘TB was the great killer when
I first came to Alaska. Detection
facilities were inadequate; hos
pital facilities were inadequate. A
typical case would be incurable at
detection and it took as long as
months or even years to get pa
tients into a hospital.
“Public Health nursing is as
much a philosophy as a routine.
There were so many dramatic and
tragic cases. I remember a young
mother came up from Old Harbor.
She had infant twins, one of whom
had died of tuberculosis. The
other was also infected and she,
herself, was incurable. It seemed
such a shame to send this poor
woman back to her family and
infect them too; we were looking
for a hospital bed for her but had
not found one. Old Father King
had a shack which we used for
such times so we put her to bed
there. About five a.m. one morning
the mother came to my house to
tell me her baby had died. She was
alone at the time. We were able
finally to get her into a hospital
where she lived her last few
months in comfort.”
TB was unknown to the natives
of Alaska until the white man
brought it to them. With the in
adequate diagnostic and treatment
facilities it spread from one ill
family member to another, infect
ing and killing in a vicious circle.
Measles are a much more serious
disease among the Indians, as are
respiratory infections.
“One week in the spring of 1957
I was called to Old Harbor. They
had a respiratory epidemic and
out of the population of a hundred
and twenty-five people, nine al
ready had died of pneumonia. The
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