RIP Susan Butcher

[Black Watch Debatable]

From the ADN:

Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher died Saturday in a Seattle hospital of complications from a recent bone marrow transplant, a hospital spokeswoman said. She was 51. Butcher planned to compete in a 300-mile race last winter, but was unable to compete after she was diagnosed with leukemia in early December.

What a remarkable, courageous woman. (Years ago she brought a dog to SoCal, to the doctor that did orthopedic surgery on my pit bulls, and the staff at the clinic said that Susan camped out there and slept on the floor next to her dog. They all thought Susan rocked.) My heart goes out to her family, and I wish Susan a heaven with wonderful trails and all her great old dogs to enjoy them with. Cabela's has more articles on Susan. This news breaks my heart.

 

With her youngest, Chisana, at this year's Iditarod:

[Dixie_Girl]

What a great loss to the world and her family.

 

Sled on Susan.

[Joe Anne]

How very sad! She was a role model to many women and young girls. I came so very close to meeting her on one of my backpacking trips to Alaska. I just simply ran out of time and money. My loss to be sure. I have read about her since she started competing and of course being a woman, she had to work twice as hard to prove she was half as good... but proved she was the best!!!

I took the Alaska Rail Road through the little town of Wasilla (sp.), (I think it's the half way point on the long Ididitarod race.

She will be missed, and now become a beautiful light in the Alaskan, winter midnight sky!

Good bye to a Heroin!!

[Kat's Dogs]

And in Seattle too. We were just in downtown Seattle today.

Was she from Seattle? Do we know why she was here? (if she wasn't from here).

 

Very sad news.

Thoughts for her family and friends.

[Lunar]

That is so sad.

[Beth G]

Aw man I have loved that woman since 5th grade!! She has been a mentor of mine!!

[AK dog doc]

Wasilla is the start point of Iditarod.

 

It's kind of interesting to me that it was two women who brought the Iditarod to national prominance... Libby Riddles, the first woman to win it, and Susan, who won it so often. In fairness, Rick Swenson is still the winningest musher, and Charlie Boulding may well be one of the most colorful ever to run it (The Musher from Manley. Not too many like him.) And of course there's Joe Reddington, the father of the Iditarod. Still, before moving to AK, I can remember that when I first started hearing about Iditarod, I first heard of it when Libby won it; sort of a small furor then (didn't hurt that Libby was young, tall, blonde and quite a looker). Then about Susan's 2nd consecutive win, it really took a big bump in prominance, and people started to get the fever (at least in CO, where I used to live).

 

Sadly, another icon of the Iditarod, Jim Brown, an Iditarod photgrapher, died two days ago (he was 91). Dave (the BF, who used to be a member of the Iditarod Airforce) used to fly Jim along the trail.... and ironically, Dave has some photos Jim took (from Dave's airplane) of Susan mushing along the Yukon River.

 

It's been a rough year for Idtarod Icons, I guess.... Vi Redington died on the eve of this year's Iditarod, as well. I was in the Knik Bar listening to Hobo Jim the night before the race. (Traditionally, Hobo Jim plays at the Knik bar the night before the race, since it's the first official checkpoint, as well as being the Joe Redington Memorial Checkpoint.) We all lifted a glass to her, and Hobo played in her honor. It was very touching.

 

Anyway, Susan put up a good fight; she's had some serious complications from her illness, but she just never gave up. Bless her.

 

[Edited to add: I think she was just in Seattle for treatment for her illness. There's a big center there, I believe; one of my staffer's husbands was treated there for leukemia.]

[kelpiegirl]

AK DOC:

Have you read the Sue Henry books? The main character is a female musher- great books, and you made me think of the books by bringing up Knik.

For those of you who love dogs, want to read about Alaska and it's history, and mushing, these are great (they are mysteries with lots of factual references).

Julie

[Bordercentrics]

Susan had a rare blood disease that affects the bone marrow. She was in Seattle for a bone marrow transplant, and died of complications after the transplant.

 

Kathy Robbins

[bc friend]

My deepest sympathies to her family. If there is comfort to be found by them, it is that she lived life to the fullest. She had a terrific career which she modified to accommodate having a family which was also important to her.

[AK dog doc]

Julie, I have in fact read some of Sue Henry's stuff; met her once, actually, and had her autograph one of her books for me. Also met Susan once, and Charlie, and Rick, and Martin Buser several times, ditto Dee Dee Jonrowe and Jeff King, Libby used to be a client (before she moved out of town - and also the BF used to date her, just before me), etc... AK is still kind of a small town in its way.... just spread over a VERY large area. A friend of mine who grew up in Haines (a small and fairly isolated town, with weather restrictions on travel that make it more so) likes to say that in Haines you don't break up with someone, you just lose your turn. That's not exactly the same as the rest of AK, but it is still a bit more intimate than anywhere else I've ever lived.

 

Susan had leukemia. There was a huge blood drive up here for a matching donor, and one was found. She had a marrow transplant (I want to say back in March or April, but I'm not sure on that), but developed graft-vs-host disease (which is when the graft starts rejecting the host into which it was transplanted; since what was transplanted was an immune system, it has the ability to recognize that it's not in Kansas any more and start to wage war on the cells of the host, which are, after all, not "self" to the transplanted ones.) She was in Seattle getting chemo in prep for another attmept at a bone marrow transplant. She was a tough woman, and never gave up. Her family was her top priority, but she didn't quit dogs, even with her illness, and was still out on the trail even this year. You gotta admire her grit and her strength... and her courage for always fighting the good fight.

[Hector]

Susan Butcher's passing is sad and my heart goes out to her family. She fought hard to regain her health but it just was not to be. There is a good article about Susan in The Anchorage Daily News. See the next post for a link to where that article can be found.

[Black Watch Debatable]

Hector, thanks --- here's the Anchorage Daily News article for those who have trouble accessing the ADN site:

 

Susan's Trail Breaker Kennel

[kelpiegirl]

If you go to the link that Luisa listed for trailbreaker kennel, and go look at the photo gallery, you will then get a real idea of this woman. It brought me to tears.

Julie

[BustopherJones]

Truly a woman of both courage and grace, as evidenced by this quote:

There was a lot of pain. I've broken a lot of bones out there, but it was what I loved doing. I didn't really choose to have leukemia. This is just a battle that was given me.

[AK dog doc]

Dave, who is in Taiwan, says that the International Herald Tribune, the international version of USAToday and the Japan Times all had coverage of Susan's passing. I thought that was rather touching... that even though she lived a simple life out in the remote bush of AK, she touched enough people that her death made international headlines. I feel for her kids and her husband; maybe it will soothe them just a little to know that her star rose over more than just AK.