rloe W. Kessinger, who was born in Medaryville, Indiana in 1911, came to Anchorage in 1933 to work as a pilot and mechanic for McGee Airways. A half-brother to Mac McGee, Kessinger worked for the operation until 1937, when McGee merged it with Alaska Star Airways. Arloe was a heavy-duty mechanic and worked on diesel engines of any size. After leaving the airline, he worked for the Alaska Road Commission, and also for McGee’s mining operations. Kessinger later was employed by the Civil Aeronautics Authority at various remote sites in Alaska. His last employment was as a mechanic for Airport Machinery Company, from which he retired.

Esther Alton Brown was born in Remsen, New York in 1918 and came to Alaska with her family in 1928. They settled in Kasilof, where her father had a fox farm. After about a year they moved on to Nenana, where her father worked for the Alaska Railroad as station manager and telegrapher. In 1934, the family moved to Wasilla, where she met Arloe. The two were married in Wasilla in 1939 and in 1940, they moved to Anchorage. There, Esther worked for the Bank of Alaska until she retired in 1989.

The Kessingers had two daughters. Laine, the eldest, married Herman Hermann, a pilot for Wien Airways. They had three daughters, Debbie Hermann McGonegal, Teresa Hermann Robbins and Barbara Hermann. Younger daughter Arla married Jim Butcher, and they had six children; Linda, Robert, Martha, James, Jr. Anita and Charles. Arloe died in 1989, Esther died in 1997, and their daughter Laine died in 1990.