Part 1 of 2
Another year has nearly passed and at this time I would like to use this space and take the opportunity to recap the names and a bit of information of the many interesting subjects of my column throughout this past year.
Bob (deceased) and Una McFarlane were married in 1954 and the children started to arrive one little girl at a time until they had seven beautiful daughters. Una graduated from UBC in the field of home economics, a study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community.
Colin Kinsley was born in London, England. He was the mayor of Prince George for 12 years and his working career in the natural gas industry spanned three decades. He said, "I arrived in Prince George with five dollars in my pocket and a dream in my head; I have had a great life and I am blessed with good friends and a wonderful family. Life is good."
Hollis Wood was born in 1929 on a farm in Brookfield, Prince Edward Island, the second eldest of six children. When his father passed away in 1941, Hollis quit school and took on the responsibility of looking after the family. He arrived in Prince George in 1949 and said, "My first impression of the City was terrible, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. It had cost me $100 to get here and if I could have afforded it I would have turned around and headed straight back to PEI. All I could see were the wooden side walks and the fact that there was no pavement."
Anna Maria (Greulich) Fitzsimmons and her husband Alexander (deceased) had to borrow $40 to get married. She reflected back about the time that she spotted a pair of red shoes in the Eaton's department store; she liked them so she bought them. The first time she wore them downtown was the last time she ever wore them. She was teased about red shoes in downtown Prince George so she never wore them again.
Lois (Allen) Keim, born in Prince George, is one of a committee of other dedicated seniors currently working on establishing the first rural seniors housing complex in BC. There are many seniors in the Pineview, Ferndale, Six Mile Lake, Buckhorn and Hixon areas that have a need for a rural seniors housing complex in their area. They have all lived, worked and raised their families in the area around Pineview and they would like to stay in the area in their retirement.
Henry Engelsjord of Norwegian descent has curled since he was 22 years old so that equates to nearly 63 years in the sport. In the 80s, his team of himself, Brian Mooney, Laurie Rustad and Ron Backman won the Senior Men's Provincial Curling playoffs twice. He said, "I have curled with the Prince George Senior Curling Mixed League for many years. It is good fun and it keeps me active socially. If you are at all interested in curling you should consider checking us out."
Jean (Borowski) Bayne met boxing enthusiast, Boyd Bayne, at a wedding in Alberta. Boyd said, "The boxing club was always about the kids; we trained them and taught them discipline, respect and not to use their skills outside of the gym with the intention to harm others. We taught them to lead a healthy life and encouraged them to be hard working students at school. The gym was not a place to mingle and hang out with their friends; they all knew they were there to train and that is why we had such a successful club." Sadly, Boyd passed away in 2016.
Clarence Boudreau, was born in 1931 in Penny, married the school teacher Olga Horns and together they lived, worked and raised their family in Penny; 80 years later they moved into Prince George. Clarence still returns to the area to go hunting and berry picking. He said, "My berry patches are located in "Zipper Mouth" areas (secret areas) that only a very few people know about."
Elsie (Suderman) Wiens of Dutch descent was born in Winnipeg and Wil Wiens was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. His parents moved to Chilliwack in 1934 during the Great Depression; they wanted to go and leave behind poor crops, the cold weather and the dust storms.
Lena Soda was born in 1932 in Mangone, the Calabria region of southern Italy. Lena and her husband Maurino (deceased) and their two children arrived in Canada in 1961 under the sponsorship of Lena's sister Assunta Mauro. At the age of 83, Lena still maintains her driver's license, lives in the family home and maintains her garden. Maurino loved to compare gardens with his Italian friends and won the Community in Bloom Award for their beautiful flowers.
Mary Robinson is 87 and enjoys the occasional night out at the Old Time Fiddlers Thursday night jam session. She said, "I am a self taught quilter and I have been quilting all of my life and at the age of 87 I can still thread a needle without the aid of eye glasses."
Fred Buchi was born in Prince George in 1924, three years later Eva Utjesenovich came into the world destined to be his long time wife of nearly 70 years - and still counting. Eva said, "I remember the day that Fred and his uncle walked into the restaurant where I worked. He was just back from England on a military leave and he was wearing his uniform. I didn't wait on him but I knew instantly that he was my guy! I fell head over heels in love with him - he never noticed me and he didn't even say hello so I just stood there and admired him from afar. I thought - what a handsome brute!"
Long time retired fire fighter John Frenkel was born in 1938 in the old army barracks hospital where the Simon Fraser Lodge is now located on Tenth Avenue. In 1980 he married Iris (Fischer) Frenkel. Iris was born in Rudolstadt, East Germany; her family left for Canada in 1954 just before the Berlin Wall went up.
Second World War veteran and former prisoner of war Frank Porter enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army in 1943 at the age of 18. He met and married Evelyn (Palmer) Porter when she was working as the cook at the Prince George and District Senior Centre on Brunswick Street.
Anka (Drazenovic) Vukovic was born in Krispolje in the Yugoslav state of Croatia in 1931 and sadly passed away in 2016.
She came to Canada at the age of 40 and had a tough time learning the English language. She explained it like this, "My daughter helped me learn the language. I am so thankful that I have Mary. Still I am not very good at English. I try to read and I listen a lot but a second language does not come easy for older people. I have prayed and I have wondered why God did not make it easy for all of us by only having one language for all the people in the world."
Fred Schaefer was born in 1936 in Germany; he came to Canada as a painter. He fell in love with and married Susan (George) Schaefer, a young girl from the Nautley area at Fort Fraser. They had three children.
Wilfred Miller was born in 1926 near Humboldt, Saskatchewan. His company played a huge part in the development of the BCR Industrial Site south of Prince George. The original site was bush country and had little or no development back in the 1950s. Today, the area covers about 700 hectares of land and is near the intersection of two major highways and the downtown area of Prince George.
Long-time Prince George resident and retired architect Trelle Morrow was born in 1930.
His architectural career spanned nearly 40 years and he has made a significant and meaningful contribution to the City of Prince George. He is part of the City's Heritage Commission, an award winning historian and he is recognized for his contributions in support of arts and culture.
Tom Leboe was born in McBride and raised in Loos, approximately 40 miles west of McBride, situated by the Canadian National Rail line near Crescent Spur and the confluence of the Morkill River and the Fraser River. The Leboe family will soon celebrate 100 years of history in Loos. He married Jean (MacEachern), a nurse from Vanderhoof, in 1979 who continued working in the home nursing care profession for many years.
Clarence and Dawn (Halliwell) Wigmore will celebrate 50 years of marriage; they were soul mates from the start. Clarence worked for Canfor and retired as materials manager, in 1998. Dawn retired from her teaching career in 1998 after 35 years of teaching.
Longtime retired and former Prince George fire chief Ed Parent was born in Cranbrook in 1934. At the age of 16, he boarded a bus to Prince George on a trip to visit his father. It was minus 40 when he arrived wearing a suit and dress shoes. He only knew his dad lived somewhere on Tenth Avenue so he started to walk and he knocked on doors going from house to house inquiring about his dad. He came to the home of Prince George-born Carol Strugala and her parents helped him locate his father. Neither one of them knew it at the time but in three years Ed and Carol would marry and stay married for the next 63 years.
Jack McKinley was born on Manitoulin Island at Gorbay in 1924. He worked in the logging industry and he said, "A memorable job was when we had to build an ice bridge on Williston Lake for the W.A.C. Bennett Dam project. It was our job to build ice bridges that spanned over several miles across the frozen lake near the Parsnip River area. We logged the trees, hauled them out onto the ice and tied them together to make a road for the logging companies. We never heard of any other man made ice bridge that was as long as the ones we built. I did work like this until I required back surgery in 1975 and it was that surgery that took me from logging straight to the piano bench." Jack married Evelyn (Laura) Mooers in 2003.
