JIm and Connie WIngren History Story

 

Shortly after the July 4th holiday, a long chapter in Ketchikan's history will come to a close when Jim and Connie Wingren move to Iowa.

The move has been in the works for a couple of years as the Wingren's pondered being closer to family and the medical care that Jim needs. In July, they will be relocating to Ankeny, Iowa, near their daughter Rebecca. It will also be within driving distance of many of Connie's upper Midwest relatives.

They are having a new home built in a development for people 55 and up.

"No more stairs," Jim said recently. "And no more three-day trips to Seattle just for a 20-minute doctor appointment."

Jim was born in Ketchikan in 1945 and Connie has lived here for 54 years, that's 125+ years in the First City. In that time, they have operated a long-time local store and had a long career in education. Jim also served on the Ketchikan City Council.

Jim's grandfather, T.W. Gaffney, moved from the Dakotas to Nome in 1903 to join his brother who had opened up a men's clothing  store.  By 1915, Gaffney was in Seattle and working as a salesman and by 1918 he was in Cordova, where he met Genevieve Whalen who became his wife. She had spent time in Skagway previously, her father - who was from New Brunswick - was a tall-ship captain. T.W. and Genevieve's daughter, Mary, was born in Cordova. When the Kennicott Copper Mine closed, the Gaffney family came to Ketchikan where T.W. worked at PJ Gilmor's clothing store for eight years before going to work in C.M Hayes clothing store. Hayes died in 1935 and Gaffney purchased the store and opened up as Gaffney's in 1936.

Originally it was at the end of Front Street where the tunnel would be built, then it was near the old Elks Club and finally it was at the corner of Main and Mission streets where it operated until 1993.

In 1945, Al Wingren came to work with Gaffney. Wingren had been in Ketchikan for more than a decade in the grocery business with his brother Paul. Al Wingren married Mary Gaffney and they had four children, Trudie, Margie, Elizabeth and Jim.

Jim went to work at Gaffney's when he was a teenager in 1958 and continued with the store until it closed in 1993.

It closed, Jim says, because of an increase in catalog shopping and economic changes in the community.

"Logging (work clothes) was a good portion of our business," he said. "The industry was dropping off then. And it was competition from mail order."

After he closed the store, Jim had a variety of jobs, bus driver, banker, Holy Name business manager and TSA employee. He also went to school to learn auctioneering and also took on the role of community Santa Claus, even joining an international brotherhood of "real bearded Santas." He was a fixture at holiday events and spent eight summers at the Christmas in Alaska shop in Ketchikan. Jim and Connie were "Santa and Mrs. Clause" at hundreds of local events over the years.

Connie was born and raised in Minnesota, one of 10 children. Even at college in Mankato, she was constantly. being asked if she was one of the "Schrupps." Half a dozen of her family members went to college at Mankato State.

After graduating from college Connie said that a friend of hers was going to an interview regarding a teaching job in Ketchikan, Alaska. Her friend asked her to come along. After the interview, the interviewer from Ketchikan asked Connie is she wanted a job as well.

"It was 1967, I wasn't even 21 yet," Connie said. "I had three or four teaching contracts offered me. I took the one from Ketchikan."

Simultaneously, her older brother, who was in the Public Health Service, got transferred to Ketchikan. That made the move even easier. Her first teaching job was kindergarten at old Main School above Downtown.

In time, she was set up on a blind date with Jim.

"It wasn't completely blind," she said. "I found out that he worked at Gaffney's so I told my friend, let's go there and buy a pair of socks for your husband. When I saw him I said yes to the blind date."

Their first date was at the Billiken Bowl on Stedman Street, now the UAS - Ketchikan Robertson Building. Their second date proved a bit more dramatic.

"I was going to teach her how to drive a stick shift," Jim said. "We were in my parent's Jeepster."

They were driving on North Tongass when they hit a dip in the road, lost control, and ended up upside down in a ditch. Surprisingly enough, there was a third date. And a fourth.

A memorable occasion in their courtship was the 1968 Thanksgiving Day hurricane. Most of the town was without power, but Connie's small apartment on Water Street had power. So, she ended up cooking three turkeys for the family get-together.

The couple's wedding was set for December 27, 1968. And then their plans when awry.

First, just days before the wedding, Jim suffered several seizures and had to be medevac'd to Seattle where doctors found a cyst in his brain. But when the doctors when to operate and remove the cyst, it had disappeared.

"We are people who believe in miracles," Connie said.

Jim was able to come home and the wedding was rescheduled to Jan 10, 1969. That month, there was a single Catholic priest in Ketchikan. Two days before the ceremony, he came down with double-pneumonia. The only other available priest was one in Juneau who was so new to the job he had yet to perform a wedding.

When the Juneau priest flew down to Ketchikan for the wedding a huge snowstorm dumped 18 inches of snow on the community, briefly trapping him at the airport on Annette. He arrived in Ketchikan just in time to preside over the ceremony.

Connie stayed at Main School for two years and then started her family. While at home she also volunteered tutoring Holy Name students in her home. She became convinced that Holy Name needed a kindergarten and lobbied the Diocese of Juneau long and hard, finally succeeded in 1980. In 1987, Connie shifted back to the public school system, initially subbing at Schoenbar but then also teaching 5th and 6th grade at Houghtaling.

She eventually retired, but Holy Name was not through with her, asking her to be principal for five years, before she retired again.

Connie said that making such a big life change at this point can be a challenge but that she's not worried.

"I always say 'Let go and let God,'" she said.

Along those lines, meeting Pope John Paul II when he visited Anchorage in 1981, remains a seminal event in her life.

"They asked me if wanted to do a reading for the mass or if I would be one of the people who took communion from him," she said. "I knew there were going to be a lot of people (the estimated crowd was 100,000) so I chose communion. And now to know that he is saint."

jim and Connie both said that what they'll miss most about Ketchikan is "the people"

"Your whole life here is other people," Connie said. "When something happens, this town comes out and says 'we're here for you.;" 

Jim also noted he'll miss the mountains and the ocean.

"Ketchikan has its challenges," he said. "But it's a perfect place to raise a family."

Connie said she won't have trouble adjusting to Iowa.

"I'm making a full circle in life (back to the Midwest)," she said.

"By the end of the first week, she'll know the names of all our neighbors and their pets," Jim added.

They expect to be in their new house by October. In the meantime, they will stay with their daughter. Future travel to Washington state to see their other children, Mary and Jim is also on the agenda.

But before they leave Ketchikan, Connie has one last "project."

"Make sure everyone knows we'll be handing out cinnamon rolls before the July 4th parade again," she said.

It has been a family tradition to hand the yummy treats along Water Street every Fourth of July.