Joyce Sharp grew up on a farm bordering St. Albert, now located between 156th Street and 149th Street.
Cecile Martindale (nee Laplante) has been a prominent member of the St. Albert community, especially in the arts. She was born on May 6, 1931 to Therese St. Arnaud and Emile LaPlante on a farm near Vimy, Alberta. In 1950, Martindale received a scholarship from the School of Agriculture in Vermilion to attend the University of Alberta. She graduated from the University of Alberta in 1955 with a major in home economics and a minor in art and French. She married Larry Martindale on July 16, 1955 at St. Anthony Pro Cathedral. Larry Martindale was born April 7, 1932 in Prince Albert, Sask., to Jo Samson and Charles Martindale.
Cecile Martindale began teaching full-time in St. Albert in September 1955. The Martindale family later moved to live in St. Albert in February 1960. She was a founding member of the St. Albert Arts and Crafts Guild in the 1960s and has remained involved in the arts guilds and the Laubenthal studios She was also an important member in the St. Albert Pottery Guild and received a lifetime membership to that guild. In 1961, Cecile Martindale was asked by the parish priest to start a kindergarten; she taught French, while her friend Claudette taught in English. She taught kindergarten until 1966, when she started teaching home economic classes in regular schools and worked as a substitute teacher for St Albert high. Martindale had four sons: Darrell, Glen, Ken, and Neil. She passed away on July 14, 2012 and is buried in St. Albert Cemetery.
Joseph Edmond Pratt was born in St. Vincent de Paul, Quebec in 1890. He studied in Ottawa at Sacré-Coeur Juniorat and continued his studies at St. Joseph's, Edmonton in 1917. In May 1918 at St. Joachim in Edmonton, Edmond Pratt was ordained a Roman Catholic priest for the order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Father Pratt taught at the St. Jean Juniorat in Edmonton, AB (1918-1919), then served as a missionary in Fort Resolution, NWT (1919-1920) and was a teacher again at St. Jean Juniorat (1920-1922). He worked as a missionary in North Battleford, SK (1922), Saddle Lake, AB (1922-1929), Onion Lake, SK (1929-1930) and Le Goff, Cold Lake, AB (1930-1934). Father Pratt was principal of Onion Lake's residential school, St.Anthony's, (1934-1938) and Hobbema's residential school (1938-1939). He was treasurer of the Blue Quills residential school in St. Paul, AB (1939-1941) and returned to North Battleford (1941-1942). From 1942-1970 he was priest at Rivière-qui-Barre also known as St. Alexander Mission. During this time, he also was the chaplain of the jail in Fort Saskatchewan. Father Pratt died in 1970 and is buried at the oblate cemetery in St. Albert, AB.
Nolan Crouse was born on 24 Nov 1953 in Viking, Alberta, to Lois and Aaron Crouse. He attended Irma High School and received a Masters of Business Administration from Cape Breton University.
After his post-secondary education, he spent 30 years in management and executive roles within the Forest Products industry in Slave Lake, Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Pennsylvania (USA). Crouse held these leadership roles with Procter and Gamble, West Fraser Timber and Alberta Energy Company (EnCana), followed by several years as a small business owner of a sawmill and wood packaging manufacturing plant employing 30 staff in west Edmonton. Crouse also was the co-founder of the Grande Prairie Indoor Ice Society, an organization that raised funds for the Canada Games Arena that hosted the 1995 Canada Winter Games. Crouse is also a former hockey coach for Fort Saskatchewan Traders, Brooks Bandits, and St. Albert Merchants.
In 2004, Crouse ran for office and was elected to the St. Albert City Council. He then served three consecutive terms as Mayor of St. Albert from 2007-2017. Crouse also served as the chair of the Capital Region Board (CRB) and the chair of the CRB's Transit Committee.
Crouse is a past recipient of the prestigious Pulp and Paper John Bates award, was awarded a “Key to the City” in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, received the Rotary Paul Harris Award and was recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Silver Medallion.
Crouse is married to Gwen (m. 1975) and they have three children: Curtis (b. 1977), Celina (b. 1979), and Dalen (b. 1985).
Richard Plain served as mayor of St. Albert for two terms in 1974-1977 and in 2001-2004. Plain holds a doctorate and taught at the University of Alberta as an associate professor until his retirement in 2001. In 1979-1981, Plain was the chairman for the St. Albert Citizens Committee opposing Edmonton's proposal to annex St. Albert. For his work in this committee, Plain was named St. Albert's 1981 Citizen of the Year. Plain is married to Margaret Plain.
Rolland Firmin Lefebvre was born in Morinville, Alberta in 1920. The family moved to Edmonton when Rolland was still young. He continued his education there and apprenticed as a printer with the French weekly newspaper “La Survivance,” funded by the Oblate Order and founded by the ACFA (Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta). The paper kept the dispersed rual communities informed of the events, local and national, affecting the lives of Franco-Albertans.
Rolland left La Survivance in 1935, during the depression, then worked as an orderly with the Grey Nuns at the Edmonton General Hospital from 1935 to 1941. In 1941 he began his study as a watchmaker and jeweller after accepting an apprenticeship with Alexander Ewen, a watchmaker from Scotland. Ewen’s business was located on 108th St and Jasper Ave. In 1941 Lefebvre married Florence Pitre and purchased an acreage on the south side of Edmonton.
In 1946, Lefebvre received his certificate from the Canadian Jeweller's Association and the Jeweller's Institute. He branched out on his own in Edmonton in 1954 when he rented an office in the Cambell Furniture building on 101A St and a few years later he moved next to the Pet Shop. The store offered watch and jewellery repair, repairs to clocks, shavers and lighters and also sold gift wares, jewellery, watches, trophies, etc.
In 1961, Lefebvre received an invitation from Mr. Maurice Tougas to join his Grandin Park Shopping Centre in St. Albert. Lefebvre moved into his new store in 1962. He ran the business successfully until 1971 when he had to sell the business and semi retire due to ill health. Mr. and Mrs. Adam Hauptman named the store Sweetheart Jewellers and opened soon thereafter and he remained as the watchmaker there for several years. Rolland Lefebvre died in 1982.
Alexander McDonald was born on May 2, 1869 in Ontario. His father was Angus McDonald and his mother was Catherine McPherson. He married Sarah McDonald on July 1, 1984. In 1895, Alexander McDonald purchased River Lot 8 in St. Albert, where he built the family house and barn. Alexander’s brother, Duncan George McDonald, also moved to St. Albert and purchased River Lot 9. Alexander and Sarah McDonald had four children: Christina (Tena) Catherine, Romeo (Romey) Alexander, Jeannette Anne, and Angus. Alexander McDonald passed away on December 28, 1940 and Sarah McDonald passed away on March 24, 1945—both are buried in the St. Albert Cemetery.
Christina (Tena) McDonald was born on July 18, 1896. She worked as a nurse at the Innisfail Hospital in the 1940’s and worked as a nurse’s aide at the St. Albert Youville Home in the 1950’s. She also worked for a short time for the Sisters of the Assumption in Battleford, Saskatchewan. She retired to the Youville Home in 1979, and passed away on October 1, 1983.
Romeo (Romey) McDonald was born May 8, 1898. On July 11, 1934, he married Kathleen McDaniel, born on July 2, 1907 in Belfast, Ireland, to Patrick and Bridget McDaniel. They had eight children: Patrick Alexander (b. 1935), Brian Donald (b. 1936), Desmond Joseph (b. 1938), Frank Anthony (b. 1939), Jeannette Bridget (b. 1942), Kevin Emmet (b. 1944), Sarah Alexandra (b. 1946), and John Gerald (1947). The family lived on River Lot 8. Romeo McDonald passed away on February 17, 1982 and Kathleen McDaniel passed away on April 11, 1983.
Sister Jeannette McDonald was born August 31, 1902. In 1923, she entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Assumption at Nicolet, Quebec, and became known as Sister Marguerite d’Ecosse. She taught in in schools around Alberta and Saskatchewan from 1926 to 1968. In 1977, Sister Jeannette retired to the convent in St. Paul, but entered the Youville Home in St. Albert following a stroke. She passed away on March 2, 1983.
Angus James McDonald James was born June 7, 1905. He married Cecile Veness in February 1938 and they had two children, Joan and Donald. Cecile Veness was born on July 13, 1909 to Walter Veness and Rose Anna Leonard. Both were involved in the St. Albert community. Angus McDonald was a member of the Lions Club and the Knights of Columbus. Starting in 1958, he also served as a trustee for the St. Albert School District No. 3, and he later became chairman of the Board of Trustees until 1961. Cecile Veness belonged to the Women’s Institute, the Altar Society, the Catholic Women’s League, and the St. Albert 4-H Clothing Club.
Edward Jonas Callihoo (Callihoe) also known as Buck Jone, was born 18 Nov 1910 in Villeneuve, Alberta. His mother was Rosalie Campion, born on Turtleback Reservation in North Dakota, and his father was Adelaide St. Pierre Callihoo (nephew of Michel Callihoo). Nora Mae Borris was born 2 Dec 1914 to Annie Callihoo (daughter of Victoria Belcourt and Louis Jerome Callihoo) and Stoney Borris. Edward and Nora met at the Grey Nuns Convent in St. Albert and they were married on 10 May 1932 at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Villeneuve when Edward was 23 and Nora was 18 years old. They had six daughters: Evelyn Mary, Theresa Vivienne, Patricia, Loretta Germaine, Audrey Virginia, Linda Donna; and one son, Garry. Edward Callihoo passed away on 6 Dec 1978. Nora Callihoo died on 24 Jan 1993 from a heart condition. They are both buried in St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery in Villeneuve.
The Bellerose family is one of the early and founding Metis families of the settlement of St. Albert. The family patriarch in the region was Olivier Bellerose (1809-1891) who came to the region from Quebec in 1833, in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. He married Josephte (Suzette) Savard and was stationed at Fort Dunvegan and Lesser Slave Lake before posting at Fort Edmonton in 1855. The family, including thirteen children, settled on the north shore of the Sturgeon River in 1859, a site later surveyed as River Lot 38. Olivier Bellerose was a member of the committee that prepared the original bylaws for St. Albert. Although settled at St. Albert, Bellerose continued to work for the Hudson's Bay Company. Olivier and Suzette Bellerose both died in 1891. Many of the descendants of the family continued to live in the St. Albert region and contributed to its development.
Maria Alina Łukaszewicz was born in 1925 in the village of Haciszcze Wielkie in Poland. Her parents were Antonina and Władysław Łukaszewicz. She was taken away to a camp in Siberia called Poldniewica with her family in February of 1940. At this camp in Siberia, Maria Łukaszewicz met her future husband Aleksander Romanko. After several years in an isolated forced labor camp, Łukaszewicz joined an exodus of Polish civilians through the southern USSR (including another stop of several months of forced labor in Uzbekistan) into Persia and southern Africa, where she lived in a Polish refugee camp in Rhodesia for several years, and the United Kingdom. In 1948 in the United Kingdom, she was reunited with Aleksander Romanko and they were married on April 30, 1949. In 1951, her first son was born, Bogumił, and in 1954 her second son was born, Lech Julian. She arrived in Canada in 1955 and the family lived at a friend’s place and rented a farm at Mystery Lake, Alberta. The family later moved to Edmonton where Maria Romanko studied education at the University of Alberta. In 1957, Maria Romanko was given a position as schoolteacher at Father Jan School in St. Albert, Alberta and she later taught at Vital Grandin School, St. Albert, Alberta. In 1960, she gave birth to a third son, Marek and in this same year, the family moved from Edmonton to St. Albert. While teaching, Romanko pursued a Bachelor of Education part-time and she earned the degree in 1968. In 1980, Romanko left Vital Grandin School and began teaching at Albert Lacombe School, St. Albert, Alberta. She retired in 1985.
Maria Romanko and her husband were actively involved in Polish Canadian community organizations. Some of the organizations in which Romanko participated included the Edmonton Polish Students Club, Polish Culture Society, Polish Academic Club, Polish Women’s Federation, St. Teresa Mission Circle, Sodality, and the Polish Combatants Association. The Romanko’s also played a key role in the development of a Polish Bilingual Program in Edmonton. During her teaching career, she would include Polish heritage in her students’ studies. To assist in her teachings on Polish heritage, Romanko wrote and published Polish Heritage in Alberta as well as an accompanying workbook. She had a unit on Polish heritage accepted as a Social Studies unit for Alberta Public Schools. In 1989, Romanko volunteered in the archives for the Polish community of Edmonton. After working on the archives for three years, she wrote an article in 1991 entitled “Opening of the Canadian Polish Congress Archives”, published in Heritage Links. In 1993, she worked in the archives for the Polish Holy Rosary Parish.