Alaska Legislature honors Jirdes Winther Baxter on her 100th birthday
Jirdes Winther Baxter celebrated her 100th birthday in Juneau on Feb. 25, 2024. The 33rd Alaska State Legislature honored her with a proclamation, recounting her remarkable life and notably distinguish her as the last survivor of the 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome.
The citation states that Jirdes Winther was born in Nome to Johan and Ragnhild Winther, Norwegian immigrants who settled in Nome in 1900.
On January 31, 1925 Jirdes was admitted to the Maynard Columbus hospital in Nome with diphtheria. Just a few days earlier, Nome’s only doctor Curtis Welch had placed an emergency telegraph to the U.S. Public Health Service requesting one million units of diphtheria antitoxin, triggering the famous Nome Serum Run, a relay of dog teams that brought the serum from Nenana to Nome. The sickness also struck Jirdes’
mother and brothers. “Legend has it that the children received the last of the old serum and Ragnhild received the first dose off the sled,” the Legislature’s proclamation reads. “Jirdes is the last living survivor of the epidemic.”
Doctors advised the family to move to warmer climates as Jirdes’ mother had lingering health issues even after she recovered from diphtheria.
The family moved first to Seattle and then settled in Juneau.
Jirdes married Fred Baxter in 1943 and they made their home in Juneau. They raised six children. After a five-year period from 1965 to 1970 when the husband’s job with Pan American Airways took them to New York and New Zealand, they returned to Juneau as their permanent home.
According to the proclamation, Jirdes worked for Lt. Governor Hugh Wade and the Retirement Division of the Dept. of Revenue. She took great interest in local politics and provided support to her husband when he served on the Juneau City Council and on the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly.
She still resides in Juneau and the proclamation declares “Jirdes is a pillar of the Juneau community, a respected elder and a beloved family member.”