Gretchen Smith Klainer

Author, Musician, Folklorist,

Alaskan Placer Gold Miner, Prospector, Registered Nurse, Mental Hygiene Advocate and guardian of planet earth.

Growing up in a very multitalented family, I was blessed to have music being the core of my being and was writing folk music that was autobiographical since early childhood. Mother was a wonderful storyteller and she would romance about a much kinder and gentler time as she was born in 1907. She passed on that love for storytelling to me as did my late husband, Fuzzy.

During the time that I was married to Fuzzy, I played music every moment of the day in our wilderness adventures, on Sundays at the Indian House, 20 miles south of Anchorage and on the open stage both in Alaska and also in Northern California when we became songbirds in the Feather River Canyon amongst the Maidu Indians. I was a frequent honky tonk angel at any bar that had a piano. My great Labrador retriever Tyonne would wait in the pickup 4 hours at a time while I would entertain.

I have the most unusual life and a tale to share with you.

Gretchen Smith-Klainer