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Former Alaska homesteader and fisherman Gene "Whitey" Wadsworth, 93, died Feb. 27, 2009, in Oakley, Idaho. Services were held March 3, 2009, in Oakley, Idaho.
Gene 'Whitey' Wadsworth
Gene was born April 9, 1915, at Oakley Basin, Idaho. Orphaned as a child, he became homeless as a young boy and was jumping trains as a hobo during the early depression. He also served in the Civilian Conservation Corps and then as a "powder monkey" and electrician in the Bingham Utah Copper mine. When World War II started, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served as a lighthouse keeper at Mary's Island near Ketchikan. He also saw war in the Aleutian Islands as an electrician on a Navy submarine chaser and visited Attu immediately after the Japanese were defeated there.
Gene married Betheen Hale in Salt Lake City, Utah, while on temporary military leave and she came to Sitka until he was honorably discharged in 1945. Gene and Betty then homesteaded 165 acres in Seldovia, where he first started commercial fishing, and his son Ray was born a year later. He drove the Seldovia mailboat between Homer and Seldovia for a year before starting commercial fishing.
For many years, his wife and son worked with him on his fishing boat out of Seldovia. Gene built and lived in three log homes in Seldovia. His first boat was the 36-foot Sea Scout.
In the 1960s, he started spending the winters in Ben Lomond, Calif., where he worked as an electrician for Lockheed, and traveled back to Seldovia to fish in the summers. He later upgraded to his new boat, the F/V Mormon, and then fished out of Kodiak, where he built another log home.
In the 1970s, he moved to Sequim, Wash., for the winters and later retired from commercial fishing industry in about 1984. Gene lived in Sequim until 2007.
Gene was preceded in death by his wife Betheen in 2006. He is survived by his son Ray Wadsworth, one older sister and five grandchildren and their families.
"Gene was a loving father, husband and grandfather who led a colorful and adventurous life and will be sorely missed," his family said.
Information about fire, police and troopers is taken from public records consisting of logbooks and press releases.
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