This Is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together

by Jon Mooallem

Genie tried to be gracious and stoic, to do what was expected of her without complaint; this, she believed, was the only way to defuse the discomfort of the men around her. At the end of the sled-dog races that afternoon, she would sign off by thanking not only all the KENI listeners and spectators, but Bram and Ty, too, “for allowing this little gal to be a part of the biggest broadcast crew ever assembled for a special events broadcast in Alaska!” She was also sure to thank her husband, Winston—“for his permission.” In retrospect, Genie was snared in a paradox a lot like the one in which the city of Anchorage found itself: insecure enough to feel like she still had something to prove, but also impatient, because she knew she was proving it. Even later, after the earthquake, when she became briefly famous around the world, The Washington Post would celebrate her as “an Alaskan housewife and mother of three children who does a man-sized job with a radio microphone.”