Lois Phillips Hudson

Who was Lois Phillips Hudson?

Lois Phillips Hudson was born in Jamestown, North Dakota on August 24, 1927, to Carl Wayne Phillips and Aline Runner Phillips; she was the eldest of three daughters born to the couple. Aline Runner was a teacher with a degree in chemistry, but left the field to become a farm wife when she married Carl, who was a largely self-educated man. The Phillips family lived and farmed outside Cleveland, North Dakota until, ruined by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, they were forced to migrate to Washington State in 1935. On their journey, they spent several months as migrant workers moving from location to location, following the crops' picking seasons for available work. During this time, the Phillips girls were considered outsiders in the communities which they passed through, and their educations were not taken seriously by the schools they were placed in, as is depicted in the short story "Children of the Harvest." On arriving finally in Seattle, they found a small house in the Ballard neighborhood, where Carl operated a gas station. Ultimately, the family bought the farm of a man who was unable to pay his taxes. The farm was located on the East Side of Lake Washington, outside the town of Redmond.