Edna Marion Sprague Haley Radonich was a Charter Member of Juneau Igloo Women's Auxiliary No. 6, and was elected to be its first president, and also served as its president in 1921, 1922, 1925 and 1927.
Sprague moved to Juneau in 1895 to teach school and to join her aunt and uncle, Matt and Alice Loughlin. She was born to Will and Ma1y Sprague, in Lyle, Minnesota, in 1875.
She was raised on a farm near Perham, Minnesota. Edna and Ed Haley were married on July 7, 1896 in Juneau.
Edna accompanied Ed to his Pine Creek claims during the 1899 mining season and returned to Juneau late in the season, pregnant with Dorothy. Travel was by steamer and by foot over the Chilkoot Trail.
She became a housewife after her two children, Dorothy and Donald, were born. In later years she worked as a matron at the federal jail on Courthouse Hill.
Edna's second husband was Thomas G. Radonich. Tom was born in Dalmatia, Croatia on September 19, 1869. He came to the U.S. as a young man and first came to Juneau about 1891. He was an early Klondike stampeder and owned and operated a restaurant at Dawson City at the height of the gold rush.
In Dawson, he was known as "Carnation Tom" because, despite the difficulties of transportation over the Trail of '98, he had regular shipments of fresh carnations brought in and always wore one in his lapel, a custom he followed for most of his adult life.
Tom returned to Juneau in the early 1900's and operated several businesses on Gastineau Channel including a restaurant, a meat market and gaming houses in Juneau and Douglas. Probably the best known of these businesses was the Alaska Grill which for many years was the largest restaurant in Alaska. It was located on Front Street in the C.W. Young building.
Edna, the former Minnesota farm girl, maintained a large box garden on the rooftop of the C.W. Young building which was adjacent to her home above the Alaska Grill. In later life she tilled an extensive terraced garden on the hillside above her final home on Basin Road.
She died on May 17, 1951, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in the Pioneers of Alaska Section.