Video: Dixie Belcher talks about her life experiences<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI looked over her life \u2014 I\u2019m 75 and she\u2019s soon to be 77 \u2014 and when you take in the total of somebody\u2019s life, she\u2019s done so much,\u201d Grummett said.<\/p>\n
Dixie graduated from Northwestern University in the early \u201960s with a sociology degree and music minor. She returned to Juneau with her husband Fred and both held jobs with the State. In 1971, Fred was killed in a helicopter crash while on assignment, leaving Dixie responsible for the well-being of their two young daughters.<\/p>\n
After her husband\u2019s death, Dixie did not sit still. Her commitment to social justice initiatives led her to create organizations that did not exist in Juneau, such as Juneau Hospice. She even went as far as to bring Dr. Elisabeth K\u00fcbler-Ross, author of \u201cOn Death and Dying,\u201d to Southeast in 1979 so that cancer care and end-of-life issues would gain more attention.<\/p>\n
In a generation where career success was defined by working a job 30 years or more, Dixie managed to form, write music for and direct the Juneau St. Paul Singers; create the Alaska Wilderness Experience group for teens to learn about their environment; organize 40 Goodwill Ambassadors to advocate throughout Alaska to keep the capitol in Juneau; and use her love of music to create Performing Artists for Peace \u2014 a group comprised of 67 performers from statewide arts organizations such as the Tanqik Theatre in Chevak, the Juneau Folksingers and Dancers, the Nunamta Dancers from Bethel, the Savoonga Comedy Players, the Anchorage Gospel Choir and the Yukon Fiddle Band of Fairbanks.<\/p>\n
Through music, the Performing Artists for Peace led the movement to open the border between Russia and Alaska, Dixie\u2019s biggest and most dangerous contribution yet. Despite bomb threats and disputes between Russia and the United States in the \u201980s, Dixie and her group crossed 11 time zones and traveled 7,800 miles to sing multilingual songs of peace and kindness before thousands of Soviets who applauded the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working with Gennadi Gerasimov, the spokesperson for Gorbachev and the spokesperson for the Soviet Union,\u201d Belcher said. \u201cWe eventually got an award from the Russian Peace Committee for opening the border and Gennadi said when we got [the award], \u2018While the rest of the world was focusing on Moscow and Washington, Dixie and I ran around and opened the back door.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The results of opening this back door were two-fold. It raised attention to the \u201cIce Wall\u201d that had separated Siberian and Alaskan Yup\u2019ik relatives for 40 years while improving overall relations between Russia and the United States.<\/p>\n
Just two years after those life-changing concerts in Russia, the Bering Strait opened with Alaska Airlines\u2019 Friendship Flight to Provideniya and a sailboat voyage of Alaska Eskimos to Novoye Chaplino. At last the \u201cIce Wall\u201d had melted, spurring the reunion of Siberian and Alaskan Yup\u2019ik relatives for the first time since separation.<\/p>\n
Belcher turned 77 on Saturday, May 20, and still advises others to follow their passions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFind what you love to do, and go do it,\u201d Belcher said. \u201cIt is overwhelming. Gandhi said, \u2018Nobody can do everything, but we all can do our part.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Ray Friedlander is a freelance writer based out of Douglas.<\/b><\/p>\n
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While recounting moments in her life, Dixie Belcher does not start off as you might expect. \u201cI think we all have our own path and my path happened to be quite nuts,\u201d Belcher laughs. \u201cI\u2019m writing a biography and it\u2019s called \u2018By Accident: The Story of an Unplanned Life.\u2019\u201d On May 4th, 2017, Belcher became […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":32716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32715"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}