Born into the placid innocence of Pre-World War I rural America, she was the ninth of the ten children of pioneer settlers William F. and Anna Burendahl Dunning.
Her father was a farmer, a business man, and lawman. He was born in New York State, migrated to the Red River country of Minnesota and then, after the turn of the century, moved his family to the Kootenay Valley town of Bonners Ferry. Her mother, Anna Burendahl, was born in Norway and, as was common during the time, was sent, while still a child, to the new world. She bore ten children, worked hard and, as a result of the inadequate medical knowledge of that time, died at a young age.
Probably the most lasting influence form Gen's youth, was that of losing her mother, Anna, at age three. Gen, and the other younger Dunning children grew up on their own without experiencing the love and care that only a mother can give. Because of her childhood she was proud and, as the years advanced, almost intensely independent. She had a great affection for her family and her love as a mother was unconditional and without bounds. She was totally dedicated.
Her teen years passed during the post war euphoria of the 1920's. During the 1930's, amid the harsh realities of the great depression, she attained adulthood.
In the early 1930's, she married Ralph John Dodson and bore her only child, a son. In 1939 she and her son joined her husband in Fairbanks Alaska. Fairbanks, at that time, was a small frontier mining community composed mostly of small log cabins arranged along the Chena River. It was here that they escaped the clutches of the great depression and poverty. In later years, she fondly referred to this time as the best of her life.
In the early 1960's, she lived for a time with a brother and various sisters. In the late 1960's she returned to school, became a Licensed Practical Nurse and then spent the last ten years of her working life caring for sick and elderly people.
If she was asked what she would like people to remember her by, it would probably be as a Loving Mother, an Alaskan, and a Dunning.
Survivors include a younger brother (Art), an older sister (Alice), her son (ron) and daughter-in-law (Kay), five granddaughters (Catherine, Susan, Margaret, Theresa Genevieve, and Jennifer), a great grandson, (Daniel Bernard Zender) and numerous nieces and nephews.
She will be sorely missed, particularly by her son who enjoyed the many years of her wise council and unqualified and unending love.