A quick followup here to the posting made a couple of days ago of these entries from my Aunt Pat’s (Patricia Redding Galpin) autograph book. I have two such books, in fact: the later example, from 1938 - 1939, has signatures and inscriptions and sketches from girls at camp and at the commercial high school she attended in Edmonton; the earlier book, from which I cited, has one inscription dated 1930, and the others run through 1934.
Lily Belzberg, Sheila Baker, Margaret West, and Dorothy Strachan were the signatories on the pages I reproduced. Might any still be alive, I wondered? I didn’t want that question to go unanswered. Here are my findings.
The Belzbergs were — are still, as many will know — a prominent family, successful in various business ventures, very active in philanthropic causes. There are a dozen or more of the extended clan in this photograph of the Calgary Hebrew School picnic, held at Browness Park, July 8, 1934. Lily — seen at the age she would have been when she signed Pat’s book — is in the third row, 12th from the left.
Lil, as she was known, married Sid Faider — it’s as Mrs. Sid Faider that she lives in most of the public record. They were in Butte, Montana from 1950 - 57, came back to Calgary round about 1957, where Sid had a car dealership. Calgary is where they remained. Sid died in 1992. Their son, Eric — born in 1947 — lived most of his adult life in Asia and was a sought-after practitioner of and lecturer in body harmony and Thai massage. He died in 2012. Eric, from what little I’ve read, is his own remarkable story. Lily, who championed various cancer charities, died on June 1, 2021, a couple of weeks shy of her 98th birthday.
About Margaret West I can’t say much. She married Frank Webster in 1946. They moved to Edmonton, then back to Calgary, and to Chestermere in 1979. They had four sons. Frank was employed by West Printing —was that the in-law family firm? — and died in 1999. For Margaret I can find no obituary, but her passing, in October, 1992, is noted in Frank’s.
Dorothy Strachan — “yours till the door steps” — was born April 19, 1923, and appears to have been a sporty girl. Evidence of her athletic prowess appears as early as 1936 when, at the Knox United Church picnic, she distinguished herself in the mixed wheelbarrow race (1st prize), the girls’ relay race (1st prize), and the girls’ three-legged race (a disappointing third, probably the fault of Betty Irving, to whom she was lashed.) In 1938 - 39, the Calgary Herald, on at least four occasions, trumpeted the news of her badminton mastery, eg.
Her father, Frank, died, and she moved with her mother to Victoria, B.C. They were living at 2300 Beach Avenue when this photo was taken, and published in the Times Colonist, Jan. 3, 1944, part of the announcement that Dorothy had joined the women’s division of the Armed Forces and was moving east for training.
Dorothy’s dad was Frank, and it was a Frank (a football player, later a ten pin bowling champ) she married, April 30, 1949. She became Dorothy Doheny. (“For the occasion the bride chose a double-breasted suit of grey flannel with matching small felt hat, Burgundy red, accessories and corsage bouquet of ophelia rosebuds and lily of the valley.”) She died August 2, 1989, in Victoria. She was survived by Frank, a son, David, and daughter, Pat. Of course, I like to think Pat was named after my Aunt — yours till the door steps, etc — but I suspect that’s not the case.
Sheila Baker, the last of the four, presented a choice between two likely candidates of that name. There was the Sheila Baker who married a fellow whose surname was also Baker and went to live in Willows, California, but she was perhaps a little young to have been the Sheila Baker who signed Aunt Pat’s book in so clear and confident a hand. I’m proceeding on the assumption that this Sheila Baker, Pat’s chum, would have only recently arrived in Calgary, that she emigrated with her parents from England. I think this is the Sheila Baker who first appears in the public record on November 27, 1926 as “little Miss Sheila Baker,” the child who makes a nice job of presenting a bouquet to Mrs. Macmillan, wife of the Archdeacon of Maidstone, when she visits St. Michael’s Church in Sittingbourne, where Hedly Oscar Baker (H. Oscar Baker as he usually appears) is the organist and choir master. It’s as a church musician that H. Oscar comes to Calgary round about 1930, and it’s there he remains through 1946.
In the fifteen years between the family’s advent in Calgary and Mr. and Mrs. Baker’s decamping to Vancouver (he died there April 27, 1955), Sheila’s name was often in the press, most often as someone who distinguished herself in piano exams, or as a trophy winner in music competitions and festivals. In 1942, she became Sheila Graham.
I spent A LOT of time tracking Sheila over the years twixt then and now. She appears again as Sheila Watt, develops a reputation as a watercolorist, then vanishes in the mid-80’s. That her middle name was Beryl was what led me to this loving account of her life and times and it fills in all the necessary blanks. Like Lil Faider, she lived until 2021. I wish I’d thought to start looking for her, for them, earlier. Every life is a novel, as we know. I didn’t want to leave these women who, as girls, made their mark in the book that was my aunt’s and is now in my keeping, with only one page. Thanks for reading. BR
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Husband Donald recruited as a neurologist from USA toUBC 1981, was 'The Belzberg Family Professor of Medicine' at UBC. The family funded the chair for at least 5 years,maybe 10. Sam was a wonderful host. We were invited to some functions at their Vancouver Home and we met 'Lil'. She was beautiful and gracious.
Thank you for staying with the search. These women’s stories evoke memories of my mother, of that same generation. She wrote so many similar autograph-book entries while growing up in small-town Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Mom died in 2021, at age 101. She would have loved your post today. I so wish we could read and chuckle over it together. xo.