Alice Franklin Bryant

Alice Virginia Franklin was born in Fredricktown, MO. As a young adult she moved to Seattle with her family, & graduated from the University of Washington. She then taught English & French in Hawaii, China, & the Philippines. It was in the Philippines that she met & married William Cheney Bryant, & gave birth to their only child, Imogene. When World War II came to the Pacific Alice & William (Imogene was staying with relatives in the US.) hid in the mountains for six months before they were caught by the Japanese & interned at Santo Tomas Prison Camp for the rest of the war. They came close to starvation, but they survived, & from this experience was born The Sun Was Darkened. Back in Seattle after the war Mrs. Bryant devoted her life to politics & working for the cause of peace & justice. She traveled widely & was one of the first Americans to visit Japan after the war. She also wrote tirelessly. In 1953 she published Religion for the Hardheaded. She also published essays, children's stories, & poetry. She ran for public office six times, & she was a tireless writer of letters-to-the-editor.