In 1962 Mary Carey, newly widowed, drove the Alcan Highway alone from Texas to Alaska, where she would make herself a new life. And her life there - whether she was teaching in an eight-pupil pilot school in Talkeetna, flying Mt. McKinley with bush pilot Don Sheldon, or homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness - was one of continuous pioneering.

A crackerjack photojournalist -- she obtained exclusive eyewitness coverage of the 1964 earthquake in Kodiak, Seward, and Valdez - Ms. Carey won five first prizes in an Alaskan Press Clubs contest in 1963. She did not re-enter the contest until 1974, at which time the lady walked off with three more first prizes. Previously, in 1955, she won the National True Story Award - a $5,000 prize.

Mary Carey was the owner and proprietor of Mary's McKinley View Lodge, which she built on her homestead in 1972. There she baked sixty-four pies each day, welcomed guests, gave lectures to tourists, and somehow found time for rock hunting and writing.

Mary died suddenly at the age of 91, on June 18, 2004, at her beloved Mary's McKinley View Lodge. She left a rich legacy and a loving family from a life well-lived.