Gastineau Channel Memories

MacKinnon, Hazel Jaeger

Jane MacKinnon

Hazel Jaeger MacKinnon was born March 12, 1897, to Anna Larsen and Ernest R. Jaeger in Juneau. Attending school in Juneau, she graduated in 1916, and went on to graduate from Mills College in California. She returned to Juneau where she taught school in Thane for a year before marrying her friend from childhood, James Simpson ?Sim? MacKinnon on December 5, 1923.

After their marriage, they lived in the Philippines and China where her husband served in the Navy. Their son, James Simpson ?Skip? MacKinnon was born while they were there. Returning to Juneau, they joined her family?s laundry business, Alaska Laundry and Cleaners. They enjoyed traveling extensively, including trips on the Yukon and MacKenzie Rivers and several trips to Norway where her mother was born.

A charter member of the Pioneers of Alaska Auxiliary No. 6, she was also active in the first Campfire Girls organization in Juneau. She died at the Sitka Pioneers? Home in January 1987.