Mary Beth Smetzer
Community reporter
Call Mary Beth at 907-459-7546.
Community News and Faith page editor Mary Beth Smetzer grew up in Michigan, arriving in Alaska in 1969 after a stint in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan vaccinating women and children against smallpox.
Mary Beth worked for four years at the Royal Oak Tribune, a suburban Detroit daily, and joined the News-Miner editorial department in 1986. In the early 1970s she edited The River Times at the Fairbanks Native Association, and from 1980-86 she was communications coordinator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North.
Mary Beth is longtime quilter and one of the founding members (1979) of the Cabin Fever Quilters Guild. She loves reading and being a grandmother, and enjoys cooking, baking and fishing. She found Fairbanks to be a wonderful, supportive place to raise her three children, Megan, Nick and Gabriel, now pursuing careers in academia, police investigation and computer design, respectively.
Recent Stories
- Fairhill grads leave close-knit school
- Saturday, May 10, 2008
- The last day of school for the three Fairhill Christian School seniors was spent preparing for their graduation ceremony Friday evening in league with teachers, students and parents.
- Three North Pole Christian graduates explore the world after high school
- Friday, May 9, 2008
- A trio of well-traveled North Pole Christian School graduates paused Thursday night for graduation ceremonies before embarking on more life-changing activities ahead.
- Fairbanks is home to a large, and growing, group of genealogists
- Monday, May 5, 2008
- At times the quest is tedious and slow, but it turns exciting and rewarding when small but important little puzzle pieces surface and start fitting together into a whole.
- Golden Heart Awards recognize local volunteers
- Thursday, May 1, 2008
- Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes, young and old, with diverse talents and abilities, as evident at the 10th Annual Flint Hills Resources Golden Heart Awards on Wednesday evening.
- Tanana Valley hospice hires interim director
- Wednesday, April 30, 2008
- Mary Johnson, the newly hired interim director for Hospice of the Tanana Valley, walks into a freshly decorated office in Hospice’s new home at 2001 Gillam Way, which opened two months ago.
- Sunnyboy uses her knowledge of plants to help others live better
- Monday, April 28, 2008
- During the summer months, Audrey 'Babe' Sunnyboy forages around the countryside, gathering healing plants that she makes into salves or dries for teas.
- Beaver students return from 10-day school trip to Tokyo, Japan
- Tuesday, April 22, 2008
- During the 50th anniversary of his death, the life of legendary Japanese Alaska pioneer Kyosuke “Frank” Yasuda is being commemorated in both his birthplace in Japan and in Beaver, the Yukon River community he founded with his Inupiat wife Nevelo in 1910.
- Friends, family mourn local legend Richard ‘Skinny Dick’ Hiland
- Saturday, April 19, 2008
- In death as in life, Richard “Skinny Dick” Hiland was the life of the party.
- Alaska Roman Catholics travel to meet pope on U.S. visit
- Tuesday, April 15, 2008
- Fairbanks Roman Catholic Bishop Donald Kettler left for the nation’s capital on a red-eye flight this morning to participate in some of the welcoming events planned during Pope Benedict XVI’s six-day visit to the United States.
- Spring is just around the corner: First geese seen at Clearwater Lake
- Tuesday, April 8, 2008
- Members of the Chaffin family in Delta Junction have keen eyes and the reputation of spying the first geese heading north into the Interior each spring. This year was no exception.