Barbara Van Slyke Anderson died June 13, 2021, in Albuquerque, NM, the daughter of former Gouverneur NY Mayor, William M. Van Slyke and Gertrude Slice Van Slyke. She graduated from Gouverneur High School as salutatorian of the Class of 1940. She then graduated from Cornell University in 1944.
She went to Poston, AZ during WWII to teach English at the Japanese relocation camp and then taught at Ganao, AZ Presbyterian Mission School.
In 1948, she married Douglas Brownell Anderson, the trader at Roundtop Trading Post adjacent to Ganado Mission and together they raised three children in Ganado. There until 1985, she learned the names of plants, tracked migrant birds and the paths of the stars, moon and sun, taught piano, loved music, learned enough about how the Navajo language worked to be helpful when she went back to teach junior high at Ganado Public School, earned her master’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University, and hosted many a visitor and family gathering. She was organized to a T, which is how she could get supper ready for a dozen guests even though the nearest grocery store (besides Roundtop) was 56 miles away. For almost 40 years, she threaded her way between two cultures, imperfectly for sure, but with thought and attention, and by the grace of good friends.
She was a reader and a writer. She wrote about every little thing and kept notes and letters in yearly folders – for 60 plus years! In 1963, she and Doug collaborated on a book about Canyon de Chelly – her writing and his photograph, and in 1972 they produced another about Chaco Canyon. After retirement in 1985, when they moved from Ganado to Cochiti Lake, NM, she wrote her memoirs.
In 2010, she published a book “That’s The Way It Used To Be,” about the Ganado Presbyterian Mission and her life there. There is a copy of her book in the Gouverneur, NY Public Library.
After 11 more years of retirement in Glendale, AZ, she moved to Albuquerque, NM. In her last year, shut in with COVID, and no longer hearing or seeing well, she would say, “I’m glad my windows face west,” knowing they looked out over the valley to three volcanoes and the broad space beyond, knowing it was filled with many things.
Barbara is survived by her brother, W. Barton Van Slyke, M.D. and his wife, Anna, their three sons David (Sue), Steve (Sharon), and Marty (Cindy), and her daughters Cecelia (Jeff) and Kathryn; grandchildren: Emily, Matt, Claire, and Mariel. Great-grandchildren are Anderson and Hayes. Preceding her in death were her husband Douglas, son Douglas (Brownie), Jr., and Anderson in-laws, Seymour and Rosalie, Alan and Ruth, and Lowell and Barbara. She will be missed by many, including nieces and nephews, dear friends – all those people who filled her life over the span of years. Contributions can be made in her name to the Northern Arizona University Foundation, Office of Native American Funds Initiatives, P.O. Box 4094, Flagstaff, AZ 86011.