A 92-year-old Prince George resident has won the 2024 Jeanne Clarke Local History Service Award.
Clarence Boudreau, a local author and musician also known as Penny Slim, is being honoured as the winner of this year’s Service Award. Boudreau, who turns 93-years-old in February, has written multiple books on the history of northern BC.
Boudreau was nominated for a Jeanne Clarke Publication Award in 2023 for his book I Hear the Mountains Calling, a memoir of his life in the community of Penny, BC, where he was born and spent the first 80 years of his life.
He and his wife Olga won the 1996 Jeanne Clarke Publication Award for their book Into the Mists of Time: a History of Guilford, Lindup and Fortin’s Sawmill. Boudreau is a storyteller who shares the history of Northern BC not only as an author, but also through his original songs, including a song about the Northern Hardware Canoe Race and the 2018 wildfires.
Boudreau’s Facebook page features many of his music videos, and a recent one titled “Yesterday’s Memories” has already received over 250,000 views.
The award was established by the Prince George Public Library Board in 1985, in memory of former Library Board Chair, Jeanne Clarke. In 1993, the PGPL Board added a Publication Award so authors could be recognized for producing an important new work of local history
This year’s awards ceremony takes place on February 25 at the Bob Harkins Branch of the library where Boudreau will be honoured.
At the ceremony the winner of 2024 Publication Award will also be announced.
Non-fiction, biographies, historical fiction or any publication that improves the appreciation and understanding of local history are eligible as long as it has been published in the last two years.
The finalists for this year’s publication award are:
• Artist’s sketches : a history of the forest industry in Prince George and area by Larry Merritt
• Berries, baseball & baskets : collection of memories by Shirley May Gratton
• Kechika chronicler : William Freer's Northern BC and Yukon diaries, 1942-1978 edited by Jay Sherwood • Prince George history : an artist’s view by Larry Merritt
• Talking to the story keepers : tales from the Chilcotin Plateau by Sage Birchwater
• The notorious Georges : crime and community in British Columbia's northern interior, 1905–25 by Jonathan Swainger
• The secret pocket by Peggy Janicki and illustrated by Carrielynn Victor
• This place is who we are : stories of Indigenous leadership, resilience, and connection to their homelands by Katherine Palmer Gordon
Past winners of the service award include Elder Edie Frederick and Jennifer Annaïs Pighin, Kym Gouchie, the Native Friendship Centre for the Skeh Baiyoh Childcare Centre, The Exploration Place and Mary Gouchie, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, and Trelle Morrow.
