As I mentioned yesterday, Sigrid Arne (1894-1973) enjoyed a second big jeep adventure. This time it was a trip to Alaska, then a trip down part of the Alaska Highway while it was still under construction. As you’ll see below, there were a variety of photos that were included in newspapers related to her story about the highway.
Below the Alaska Highway articles are more information about Sigrid and other articles by her. Unfortunately, I can still not locate an obituary nor a biography related to her. So, I’m attaching these articles to this thread so that later I can draft a good wikipedia biography about her.
THE ALASKA HIGHWAY ARTICLE AND PHOTOS:
This first photo was published in the June 15, 1942, issue of the Decatur Journal. It shows Sigrid interviewing Pvt. Levi Schrock and and Prv. Albert Tomaino.
A day earlier, in June 14, 1942, the Knoxville Journal published Sigrid’s experience watching the military build a road through thickly wooded and boggy areas.
The June 15, 1942, issue of the Spokesman Review featured this series of photos on its back page. It’s hard to believe that Melba Bergeron Mince was working with the military in that outfit (how did the mosquitos not attack all the exposed skin?
OTHER SIGRID ARNE STORIES:
A month prior to the above articles, Sigrid wrote about a woman who lived by herself in Alaska and remained unafraid of the Japanese Military:
Besides riding in jeeps, Sigrid reported on a ride in a tank on December 12, 1939 (Birmingham News). It sounds like the ride was a rough one:
Another type of writing that Sigrid did were serialize Christmas stories over a few December weeks leading up to Christmas between 1932 and 1940. One blogger has documented a few excerpts of her works: http://allthingsger.blogspot.com/2010/12/ho-ho-holidays-monday-cartoon-day.html
Here’s the intro to the 1932 version:
SIGRID ARNE’S CONTINUES HER RISING VISIBILITY:
Later in the summer of 1942, the Associate Press, Sigrid’s employer, highlighted her as one of five Associated Press reporters (out of about of 1400 other reports) who were traveling the world and reporting on their experiences:
In 1943 she became more well-known following an article syndicated to numerous newspapers about Sigrid and her adventurous life:
During the latter part of WWII, Sigrid turned to reporting on how the world was approaching life and politics once the war ended. As part of her research, she wrote her only book: United National Primer: The Key to the Conferences.
The Associate Press had a traditional of retiring reporters once they hit the age of 55, which Sigrid did in 1949. The next year, she was president of the American News Womens Club (1950-1951). Following that, she continued to file stories from her Michigan home.
At this time, I don’t have much more information on her later years, but at least one site reports that she died in February of 1973 at the age of 79.