By Heather A. Resz
For the Frontiersman
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As first- and second-graders in Cordova, Floyd and her sister would cross the street to eat at their grandmother's house on school days.
“She'd make us grilled-cheese sandwiches and soup, then would sit down between us and read her stories,” Floyd said. “She'd just keep reading louder and louder as we crossed the street to go back to school.”
Now her grandmother's stories have been collected and are in the process of being published as a three-volume set. The stories are largely based on the research of Floyd's grandmother, Phyllis Downing Carlson, and her niece, Laurel Downing Bill.
“I am overwhelmed. It's just brought back wonderful memories,” Floyd said, holding her copy of the book, “Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume 1.”
Bill said she plans to release two more volumes in the set with a new book published each spring through 2008. But she doesn't rule out a fourth book, because she has so much entertaining information about Alaska's past.
Floyd has lived in Wasilla for more than 30 years, raising a family and working for the state Department of Corrections. She said the book is a treasure to the three generations of Carlson's family who still live in the Mat-Su Borough.
Carlson's grandchildren living in the area are Steven Rousculp and family, Paul Rousculp and family, and Floyd and her family.
“It's a colossal honor,” Floyd said of seeing the stories in print. “It would have made my grandmother so proud to know Laurel did this.”
Treasures in a trunk
After her aunt's death in 1993, Bill received Carlson's complete archive of notes, articles and her collection of rare Alaska books. Inspired by her aunt's work, Bill embarked on a journey to publish the research.
The stories now appear as a newspaper column called “Aunt Phil's Trunk” in the Senior Voice, and Bill recently received a second-place award from the Alaska Press Club for a condensed version of the “Legend in a blue parka,” which was published in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and is the last chapter of the new book.
She will sign copies of her book, “Aunt Phil's Trunk: Volume 1,” at Fireside Bookstore in Palmer May 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Released this spring, the self-published book has received favorable reviews for its easy reading and more than 250 black-and-white photos that offer a peek into Alaska's past.
The book features many fascinating stories, including nuns mingling with rough-and-tumble adventurers on the banks of Nome, the last shot of the Civil War booming in the Bering Sea, and the scoundrel Soapy Smith serving as an angel of mercy before he became the undisputed king of crime in Skagway.
A later volume will focus on the Wasilla and Palmer areas, Bill said.
A third-generation Alaskan, Bill was born in Fairbanks in 1951. Her paternal grandfather, Walter Downing, helped build the Copper River Railroad, and became a conductor for the line; her maternal great-grandfather, Robert Burns Mathison, helped establish the gold-rush town of Hope in 1898; and her father, Richard A. Downing, became the first commissioner of public works when Alaska became a state in 1959.
As an adult, Bill spent more than two decades in King Salmon and worked for Bristol Bay Telephone Cooperative Inc. After her fisheries biologist husband, Donald, retired, they moved to Anchorage with their two children in 1997.
Bill went back to college and graduated magna cum laude with a journalism degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2003.
Living Alaska history
Co-author Phyllis Carlson didn't just write about Alaska's history, she lived in Alaska from 1914 to 1993 - most of Alaska's time as part of the United States.
She was born in 1909 in Seattle, and moved to Cordova at the age of 3 when her father signed on with the Copper River Railroad.
She attended school in Cordova and went on to earn her teaching certificate. She met and married Floyd's grandfather while on her first teaching assignment in Cooper Landing. She also taught in Tyonek and other communities.
Later in life, Carlson became the Alaska reference librarian for the Z.J. Loussac Library in Anchorage, and served on many boards, including the State Historical Society, Historical Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Anchorage Bicentennial Commission.
Floyd said her whole family is excited to have access to her grandmother's decades of research. Her oldest grandchild was born two months after her beloved grandmother died in 1993, but that hasn't lessened the boy's interest in the book.
“He asked me if he could borrow the money to buy a copy of the book for the library at Wasilla Middle School,” she said.
The 344-page book sells for $19.95 and is available in Palmer at Fireside Books, 720 S. Alaska St., Alaskana Books, 564 S. Denali, and in Wasilla at Annabel's Books in the Meta Rose Square, and Books Inc., 485 W. Parks Hwy. The first volume also is available online at auntphilstrunk. com.
Comments
11 comment(s)wrote on Jun 9, 2010 3:28 PM:
Rosemary wrote on Jan 14, 2009 9:58 AM:
Student Rosemary M
9th:) "
alaska wrote on Nov 25, 2008 10:10 AM:
jane wrote on Sep 11, 2008 10:18 AM:
floridian wrote on Sep 5, 2008 1:23 PM:
Please, please take the bee hived, moose queen back to Alaska, back to her husband and kids she does not care about, AND KEEP HER!!
The US DOES NOT NEED another liar in the White House, or for the matter, anywhere in the DC Area.
Keep your moose queen Alaska!! She never quite tells the whole story which is too much like the current Bush administration. Gross! Gross! Gross! Both of you. "
April Taylor family wrote on Aug 15, 2008 2:38 PM:
bob wrote on Mar 18, 2008 11:13 AM:
akfjk wrote on Feb 21, 2008 12:50 PM:
Gloria Hafemeister wrote on Feb 19, 2008 3:08 PM:
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Annie Frank wrote on Nov 9, 2007 8:14 AM: