Constance Sautebin
Education could be Constance Sautebin’s middle name. Connie learned at a very young age how to gather eggs and feed chickens on her family’s farm in Addison township near Davenport, ND. The one thing she didn’t have to learn with her four sisters was milking because she was needed for the inside chores.
In the mood for an adventure
Connie attended country school and began high school at a younger age because one of her teachers advanced her two grades in one year. Following graduation, Connie attended Moorhead State University. She wanted to attend business school but her father insisted she was too young to get a job. She became a teacher and taught math in northern Minnesota, then Iowa, Idaho and Oregon before heading to a mission school in Alaska.
She had seen ads for orphanage teachers and since had grown up in a one-room school, she figured it would be like getting back to her roots. So in 1946, Constance packed up her belongings, boarded a ship in Seattle and sailed to Seward, Alaska, then by train to Anchorage, then brush plane to Bethel and finally by boat to Nunapisinghak. The children’s home was three miles—by boat—from the nearest village of Kwethluk. There were 30 to 36 children enrolled in the mission school which included boys and girls dormitories, a home for the superintendent and a chapel. Connie and the other teachers made fast friends with one another and some of the villagers and they all enjoyed teaching at the mission school. Connie was attending summer school at the University when Alaska became a state and remembers a lot of excitement and festivities during that time.
After the children’s home and mission school closed, Connie remained in Alaska and taught second grade in the Bethel city school. Again, Connie formed lasting friendships with her fellow teachers, a couple of whom retired in Watertown, Wisconsin. Connie was 62 when she retired from teaching. She remained in her beloved Bethel and stayed there 15 years working in a church office, canning salmon and making all kinds of jam from blueberries, salmon berries, thimble berries and bush cranberries.
During her retirement in Bethel, Connie returned to education, but this time as a student once again aboard a World Campus Afloat cruiseship. The ship transported her to several interesting places—including South Africa—holding classes about each port. Then the students received an assignment project they had to complete on shore. One of Connie’s greatest memories was meeting the South African doctor, Christian Barnard, who performed the first successful heart transplant surgery.
It was family that called Connie back to the Midwest and Bethany where her mother had been a resident years earlier. Now as Connie lounges in her easy chair, she is surrounded by fond memories of her time in Alaska with a painting depicting the beautiful scenery of Anchorage and Fairbanks done by one of her students, a handmade quilt with squares from friends and villagers, and a striking photo of an Eskimo woman who was everyone’s friend and a portrait made for her by an Alaska airlines artist back in 1961. There’s an fascinating story about each item in her décor; next time you’re in the mood for an adventure, pull up a chair at Connie’s and settle in for a great tale.