Blair, Raymond

Raymond Blair was a trader to the Navajo Indians, 1938-1976. For a U.S. Marine stationed half the world away in the Philippines such a future, surely, was unimaginable. Besides, Raymond was from the Bluegrass country of Kentucky. And Navajos lived in the red sand country of the Four Corners. But, it was a young girl in the Navajo community of Toadlena, during the Depression Years of the early 1930's, who converted an improbability to reality.

Marilene was her name, thirteen years old and lonesome. Responding to a dare, she listed her name in Ranch Romances magazine, inviting pen pals to write. Amazingly, Raymond was one who saw it. And so did others, and letters began arriving in Toadlena. But those from the fellow over in the Philippines gradually became more special. Upon discharge from the service in Virginia, Raymond boarded a bus for Gallup, New Mexico, instead of heading home to Kentucky. This beginning, and details of their subsequent life together as traders to the Navajo stem from an interview given by Marilene and Raymond's brother, Elijah, to Karen Underhill and Bradford Cole of NAU's Cline Library.

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