Crystal Snow Jenne

Crystal Brilliant Snow Jenne was the first woman to run for the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives in the Alaska Territory.^[1]

Crystal Brilliant Snow Jenne was born in Sonora, California on May 30, 1884.^[2]

In 1887, she migrated to the Alaska Territory with her parents, who worked as a troupe of actors to entertain the miners.^[1] As her father joined the Klondike Gold Rush, they moved to Circle City where her father built an opera house.^[2] After he found gold, they moved to Seattle, but they lost their money and returned to Alaska.^[2]

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley where she majored in Music, she taught in Paso Robles, California.^[2][3] From 1907 to 1908, she taught in Douglas, Alaska.^[2] She spent the next summer singing for miners in Skagway, Haines, Dawson, Fairbanks, Nome, etc.^[2] She then attended the Spencerian Commercial School in Cleveland, Ohio to study Business.^[2] She then taught in Skagway, Sitka, and the Mendenhall Valley.^[2]

She moved back to Juneau in 1914.^[1] She was married in 1916 and had three children.^[2] Her husband died in 1938.^[3] The next year, she published a volume of historical poetry.^[2] Meanwhile, she worked in church choirs, taught, and ran a flower shop.^[2] In 1934, she ran as a Democrat for the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives.^[1][2] She lost four races, and was elected in 1940, and reelected in 1942.^[1][2][3]

She was a member of the Alaska Federation of Women's Clubs, the Democratic Women's Club, the Juneau Women's Club, and the National Business and Professional Women's Club.^[2]

She died at the Sitka Pioneer Home on June 5, 1968.^[2][3]

• The Ghost of Old Juneau (1939)

• Crystal Jenne at 100 Years of Alaska's Legislature
• Crystal Snow and Monte Snow in theatrical costume from Alaska's Digital Archives – photo of Crystal Snow and brother Montgomery Adolph "Monte" Snow (1882–1957) as young children, dressed in theatrical garb and striking poses