Information on Less and Dotty Fetrow by Karla Fetrow
My dad (Less) was from San Bernadino, California, but he was raised on a farm
in Kansas as he had tuberculosis as a child. During the Great Depression,
he joined the Civilian Youth Corps, and was sent to Alaska for a short time to
work on the roads. My mother (Dotty) was from Tacoma, Washington.
During the Second World War, my dad joined the navy and bunked with one of my
mom's brothers. He "met" my mother through the mail
correspondence and care packages she regularly sent. After a few initial
letters and upon receiving a photograph of her, my dad told his bunk mate that
this was the woman he was going to marry. After the war, he accompanied my
uncle to Washington, where he finally got to meet my mother in real life.
They were married within a few weeks. My mother's parents were opposed to
the wedding, especially after hearing they planned to move to Alaska, and felt
it was inappropriate for a woman to marry before her older sister, to a man she
barely knew and leave her career for the "barbaric wilderness".
My mom responded that she had always wanted to go on an adventure, and she
couldn't imagine a greater adventure than becoming a settler in Alaska, so that
was the end of that. My dad applied for and received a post with the civil
service sector of Fort Richardson, thus beginning their life long commitment to
pioneering.