Ione Christensen, the former Yukon commissioner and senator, first female mayor of Whitehorse, and celebrated keeper of a century-old sourdough starter, has died. She was 91.

"She was a force," said Ron Veale, a retired Yukon Supreme Court judge and longtime friend of Christensen. "I mean, she did it all ... every step of the way in her life was a phenomenal accomplishment."

Christensen was born in B.C. and spent most of her childhood at Fort Selkirk, a former trading post at the confluence of the Yukon and Pelly Rivers, where her family moved in 1935. Her father, G.I. Cameron, was an RCMP officer stationed there.

Christensen would often reminisce about those years growing up at Fort Selkirk, a remote outpost where she had a dog team and a trap line.

"The only way you got around was ei

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