Below the radar: virtually unknown heroes of Alaska.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: GENERAL

There are no buildings or streets named after them. In social studies classrooms across Alaska, seldom are their names the first to be included in history lessons about those who have contributed to the advancement of Alaska. While Alaskans are used to hearing names such as William Egan, Henry Gruenig, Walter J. Hickel, Ted Stevens, Jay Hammond, Sheldon Jackson, Vitus Bering, Benny Benson and Aleksandr Baranov over and over again, there are also hundreds of others who, though less familiar to most, are by no means less significant in their contributions to the growth and evolution of Alaska. These are their stories.

KAY FANNING

When former Anchorage Daily News editor and publisher, Larry Fanning, dropped dead at his desk from a massive heart attack in 1971, his wife, Kay, who had no significant work experiences, went from working in the newspaper's library to becoming her husband's successor. Many of her newsroom employees, along with the rest of the community, assumed she would hand over the paper's management to someone else, and in some cases, they secretly hoped she would fail. They watched her every move skeptically, unconvinced that the former debutante and ex-wife of Chicago newspaper publisher and department store magnate Marshall Field IV had what it took to grow a newspaper that had a proven track record for being solidly second to the Anchorage Times.

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But succeed she did. What Fanning did have was an impressive education from Smith College, money, beauty and big city social graces, the likes of which Anchorage has not seen since. Her children and former colleagues describe her as cheerful, optimistic, dynamic, religious and kind to others. At the same time, her natural leader ship skills, willingness to take an active role in the community, and her unwavering standards and good instincts helped her become one of the most influential women in Alaska's history, as she turned the struggling Anchorage Daily News to become Alaska's largest and best newspaper.

It is hard to overestimate Fanning's contribution to Alaska journalism. Howard Weaver, then a young cub reporter who first worked with Fanning in 1972 and went on to become chief editor of the paper from 1983 to 1995, says, while her own story was one of unusual twists and turns, she not only persevered but inspired her staff to believe the paper could not only be the best in Alaska but also one of the best in the nation.

"She didn't accept the fact that Alaska could be good enough--she thought we could be the best," Weaver says 37 years after first meeting her. "She was unwilling to lower her standards and as a result we all started doing more than we thought we could do."

Her greatest professional accomplishment, he says, was "believing that the (Anchorage Daily News) could survive and prosper when it was not really an entirely rational thing to believe." It ultimately drove the Times out of business in 1992. "Over time, everything she believed came to be true, even though it seemed unlikely by most standards. For whatever reason, she always got what she wanted. She had a remarkable capacity to believe in herself and others and it inspired us all to work for the...