She died in November 1936 of a gunshot in a case that was ruled suicide, although suspicion hung over her husband Alvah Pilkenton for many years.
on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.Within the broader history of Alaska, Zelda King is unmentioned and forgotten. In the lore of the Matanuska Valley, where she lived and worked for the last years of her life, she is a bit of trivia known by only the most diehard local historians. Her presence in the historical record is similarly scant and elusive.
King was young and popular around the community, where she caught the eye of Alvah Pilkenton, an accountant for the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation, which oversaw the colony. On May 23, 1936, they were married in his boss’s apartment at the Anchorage Hotel. She wore a white-flowered satin gown with a bouquet of sweet pea flowers and baby breath, observed by 15 friends from Palmer. Afterward, they celebrated at a Lake Spenard roadhouse dance.
On Nov. 11, 1936, late that night after an eventful Armistice Day celebration, a single gunshot echoed in Palmer. A small group of locals rushed to the Pilkenton home at the edge of town. King was slumped dead upon the kitchen linoleum, one arm stretched outward as if to break her fall. Apart from bare feet, she was completely clothed. An intoxicated Pilkenton kneeled at her head.
Pilkenton, the husband of less than six months, told one story at the death scene and another at the initial inquest. There, he requested a private hearing to offer his new account of events. “Must all these people be here,” he asked. Walter Huntley, the first U.S. Commissioner of Palmer and later a member of the territorial legislature, agreed to this request and approved the suicide verdict.
From that promising change, the story turned and entered its depressing denouement. After nine months in the Valdez jail, Pilkenton was released after the grand jury declined to indict him. When a grand jury refuses to indict, the proceedings are not released to the public, so the nature of the evidence and defense are unknown.
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