Carol Neeley Marks 90 Years with Community Celebration

I like to say it’s a big state but a small community.”

Carol Neeley

Carol Neeley, widely regarded as one of Glennallen’s longest-standing residents, celebrated her 90th birthday with dozens of friends and relatives on Saturday, June 13 at the American Legion Hall. 

“I’m so blessed with family and friends,” Neeley told some of the guests, which included several friends from around the state as well as great-grandchildren who traveled from the Lower 48.

Decorations around the hall gave snapshots of life in the United States 90 years ago. When Neeley was a newborn, the average cost of a new home was $4,000, and gas sold for 20 cents a gallon. In 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House, you could buy a car for under $700, and the world population was around 2.2 billion people.

Neeley was born in Wisconsin, and her family moved to the Glennallen area in 1945. She met her husband here when she was nine and he was twelve. Carol said Douglas “Sy” Neeley knew right away that they were going to get married, and his prediction came true just ten years later in 1955. The Neeleys raised a family here, started the Copper Basin Sanitation business, and ran a bed and breakfast. 

Carol’s family includes “three daughters here and one in heaven, five grandkids, and seven or eight great-grandkids.” Her birthday party included a trivia game where friends had to guess her favorite food (correct answer: strawberries), movie (“E.T.”), and actors (Clark Gable and Meryl Streep). 

It didn’t surprise those who know her that Neeley’s favorite hobbies are reading and cooking, but it might have surprised some to learn that her favorite TV show is “Reacher.”

Daughter Sharon Daniel described her mom as “a very brave woman … very resilient,” while another daughter Shannon Saavedra said a lot of people who know her today would be surprised to learn that her mom was in the process of getting a pilot’s license earlier in her life.

Neeley’s daughters also described her as a “wicked card player” and accordion player.

“It’s a changing community,” Neeley said when asked about her memories of Glennallen over the decades, mentioning how the population changed with the comings and goings of institutions like the Pipeline and the Alaska Bible College.

“I like to say it’s a big state but a small community,” Neeley explained, mentioning how the Copper River community is there for members going through tragedies like losing a child or having a home destroyed by a flood.