Fonds - Rolland Lefebvre fonds

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.