[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4489-S4490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO MARY BINKLEY

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, what I really want to do is do something 
that I think is probably the best highlight of Thursday speeches in the 
Senate--I think the pages all certainly agree; they are all nodding--
for the people watching across America. It is the ``Alaskan of the 
Week.''
  This is a great tradition. I have been doing it for many, many years. 
I try to get down here on the Senate floor on Thursday, wrapping up--
not every week but a lot of weeks. And I like to talk about an Alaskan 
who is doing something really important for our State, community, maybe 
the country, maybe the world, and then talk a little bit about what is 
going on back home. So I am going to do that.
  But we also had another neat tradition today here in the Senate: our 
Thursday lunch group in the Senate on the Republican side. One Senator 
hosts lunch for his or her colleagues and talks a little bit about 
their home State. Today was my opportunity to host.
  I am not bragging, but I do think when Senator Murkowski and I--and 
by the way, Senator Collins, with Maine lobster--but when Senator 
Murkowski and I host, we have good attendance because we have great 
seafood: fresh halibut, fresh salmon. We did that. I did that again 
today. It was great. The whole room was decorated with Alaskan perfect 
peonies. We have great peonies in Alaska too--holy cow.
  So this a perfect time for the ``Alaskan of the Week.''
  First, I want to give a little snapshot of what is going on back 
home, what life is like in Alaska right now. The midnight Sun is out. A 
few weeks ago, I was in Fairbanks, the home of Mary Binkley, who is our 
Alaskan of the Week--we are going to talk a lot about Mary--and we had 
our famous Midnight Sun Baseball Game. Thousands of baseball fans 
across the world, literally, come to see this game, which started in 
1906. Some minors, some military guys came together for a baseball game 
in 1906. It is going strong more than 100 years later.
  This year, the Fairbanks Goldpanners played the Glacier Pilots, an 
Anchorage baseball team that is part of the Alaska Baseball Summer 
League. Now, this is one of the premier collegiate summer baseball 
leagues in the country. It is something a lot of people don't know 
about. I was talking a little bit about it at our lunch today.
  Great college players come to Alaska to play baseball under the 
midnight Sun, and so many of them have gone on to do great things. So 
many of them have not only gone on to the majors; so many of them have 
gone on to the Baseball Hall of Fame and have been some of America's 
greatest players. Think about it. All these guys came up to Alaska to 
play summer baseball: Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Tom Seaver, Dave 
Winfield, Randy Johnson, Andy Messersmith. This is hall-of-fame 
baseball. And we get that in Alaska. It is really a great league. So if 
you are a baseball fan, make sure you come up to Fairbanks for next 
year's game.
  We were also in Fairbanks a couple of weeks ago, and I had the 
opportunity to run the Midnight Sun Run 10K. It is a great run--again, 
people from all over the world. We had 4,000 runners this year. I do it 
every year. I am definitely getting slower, but it is one fun 10K. It 
is great. So come on up if you are a racer. You will love that one too.
  So while you are in Fairbanks, if you come up for a game or the 10K, 
make sure you get out on Fairbanks' beautiful rivers, the lifeblood of 
the community. When you do so, on a sunny summer day on the Chena River 
or the Tanana, chances are you will spot a vintage-style sternwheel 
paddleboat belonging to Riverboat Discovery gliding along the channel, 
carrying passengers through one of the most scenic river routes in 
Alaska--really, in the world.
  If you are one of those lucky passengers, there is a good chance you 
will catch sight of a familiar figure waving from the shore, and that 
is 99-year-old Mary Binkley, cofounder of Riverboat Discovery and our 
Alaskan of the Week.
  So let's dive into the Alaska institution that is Riverboat 
Discovery. This year, we will celebrate--the Binkley family will 
celebrate--the 75th anniversary of this incredible institution. Now, it 
is made up of three iconic paddleboats: Discovery I, Discovery II, and 
Discovery III. Riverboat Discovery shows off the best of Alaska's 
interior landscape, including a bush plane demonstration, a visit to a 
recreated Athabascan Native village, and learning about traditional 
subsistence lifestyles.
  For tourists, it is a 3-hour snapshot of Alaskan history. For locals, 
it is a beloved institution and a summer job for many young 
Fairbanksans, including my sister-in-law Janine, who many, many years 
ago worked for Riverboat Discovery.
  While Riverboat Discovery preserves the history of the interior, the 
Binkley family, who has owned and operated Riverboat Discovery for 75 
years, has its own great history of Alaskan grit and innovation and 
hospitality and generosity. The center of that history and that great 
family, the Binkleys, is Mary Binkley, our Alaskan of the Week.
  She was born in Vernonia, OR, in 1926--the youngest of six children. 
You know that is a tough time in our country's history. Mary's story 
began in hardship. Her mother passed away soon after her birth. Her 
father, a logger, couldn't raise the children alone. Her siblings were 
scattered, but they were bonded for life.
  Her brothers, who went on to become fishermen off the coast of rugged 
Kodiak, AK--rugged but beautiful Kodiak, AK--wanted something for their 
baby sister Mary. They scraped together a college scholarship fund, 
determined that Mary would be the first in the family to attend 
college. Isn't that great--brothers taking care of the little sister?
  So Mary, from Oregon, journeyed north to the University of Alaska 
Fairbanks, where she had a cousin who was a professor there. It was at 
UAF, as we call it, in Alaska, that she met a young, handsome riverboat 
captain named Jim Binkley, a third-generation steamboater from 
Wrangell, AK.
  They married back in Mary's home State of Oregon in 1946 but quickly 
returned to Fairbanks that same year. With nothing more than a $4,000 
loan and a dream, Jim and Mary purchased their first vessel, the 
Godspeed, and began a river cruise business that would become 
synonymous with Fairbanks tourism and the interior Alaska river 
culture.
  Mary greeted every guest personally, often serving as a tour guide, a 
deckhand, and a hospitality manager all in one. To her, they weren't 
just tourists; they were her guests. She worked alongside her husband 
Jim, the captain. And the popularity in Alaska--in America--of this 
riverboat cruise on one of Fairbanks' great rivers grew and kept 
growing.
  By 1955, the Godspeed could no longer keep up with the demand, so Jim 
built the Discovery I in his backyard with Mary by his side. Jim called 
her his ``lifeline and anchor.'' Mary did it all: first mate, deckhand, 
ticket taker, mother of four kids--who, by the way, have grown up to be 
pillars of the Alaska community in so many ways. I could do whole 
speeches on the Binkley kids.
  Later, she was a grandmother while watching three generations of 
Binkleys get involved in this great family business. And they have 
expanded into other things really important to Alaska. Taking tickets 
with Mary remains a rite of passage for Binkley grandchildren to this 
day.
  As the tour company expanded, Mary remained its heart--greeting 
travelers on the riverbanks, hiring Alaska Native guides to share their 
knowledge and traditions of Native Athabascan life during Chena Village 
visits, and helping to craft that Alaskan hospitality that guests feel 
to this day.
  ``My grandma has the ability to make meaningful connections with

[[Page S4490]]

perfect strangers,'' her granddaughter Kai recently said. ``She treats 
them less like tourists and more like family.'' That is Mary. Everybody 
who meets her thinks she is incredible.
  So this fleet, the Binkley fleet, would grow and continue to grow to 
Discovery II, launched in 1971, which was a converted freighter; then 
Discovery III, in 1987, a grand, 900-passenger vessel, launched 
fittingly on the Fourth of July in Fairbanks. That day, as the boat 
pulled away from the dock, generations of Binkleys waved from the deck. 
Waving from the shore was Mary, and she still is waving from that same 
Fairbanks riverbank at 99 years young.
  So what began in 1950 as a modest river tour on a converted 
missionary boat has grown into the cornerstone of Fairbanks' tourism 
economy, and Mary has been at the center of it all--welcoming guests, 
sharing the experience, and setting a tone of genuine hospitality that 
endures to this day. At 99 years young, Mary is still part of the 
fabric of the business, waving from the riverbank as Discovery III 
rounds the river bend.
  This weekend, the Binkley family will gather together to celebrate 75 
years of operation but, more importantly, 75 years of a family legacy 
with Mary at the front and center. More than 500 family members and 
friends and guests from across America and from across Alaska will join 
Mary at Steamboat Landing this Saturday for a nighttime cruise on the 
Discovery III, which will be a fitting celebration for this incredible 
woman and incredible family behind an Alaskan institution.
  So congratulations, Riverboat Discovery, to 75 years. And to Mary: 
Congratulations on one of the most prestigious awards you can ever 
receive: the Alaskan of the Week from the U.S. Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.

                          ____________________