Harriett Catherine Johnson—Fox

My mother was one of eight children, all girls. She was born 16 November 1913 in Seldovia.

She was blind for the first ten years of her life. Going to school was miserable for her as the kids would tease her and dip her braids in the inkwells. She had long hair about to her knees. When she was about ten she was out camping with the family, usually a fishing trip. While in the tent her older sister Sue was supposed to be watching her and she bumped into a shelf containing spices. Pepper fell into her eyes and her eyesight came back. She said the first thing she saw was a big boat.

When she was in her teens the bob hair cut came out. She went to Joe Hill’s bar where he cut hair and had him cut her hair like a boy. Her dad was furious with her. Joe tied her hair with a red ribbon and hung it on the mirror in his bar. It stayed there until the place burned down.

Hattie married Thomas Fox, who was a hunter and trapper. She had six children; all of them lived. Tom was of mixed blood and when he drank he was a little wild; this was the cause of most of the family problems. When Tom got tuberculosis, he was sent to the sanitarium in Seattle. He was there for a couple of years. Before he got home, my mother divorced him.

Mom worked in restaurants all her life as a cook. First for Russian John and then for the Linwood Café. After the children grew up, the boys said that she didn’t have to work anymore, so helped her by buying the Zenith Beach House.

When we were young we lived in Grandpa’s log house and then moved to a big white house up the slough. This house was haunted, so we all thought. Fred Elvaas bought the property and built another house in its place. Later when her daughter Lavern had medical problems she moved to Seward where she lived the rest of her life. She died in Seward and is buried in the cemetery there.