Eve Lazarus
Barbara Howard received a Queen’s Jubilee Medal last week at Burnaby City Hall.
Barbara turns 93 this year, and in the last couple of years she’s been festooned with a slew of honours including induction into both the Burnaby and the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a “Freedom of the Municipality” award from Belcarra Council, where she owns a cottage.
I had lunch at the Baron’s Manor Pub recently. It’s a heritage house at the corner of 96th Avenue and 192nd Street in Port Kells, converted to a pub in 2005, and the new owners have given it a museum-like quality by filling it with old photos, newspaper articles and artifacts from one of its early owners, the Baron von Mackensen.
It’s the 60th anniversary of the Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Woodward’s Foundation, and it’s my guess that unless you’re part of the medical community, you’ve never heard of it. It’s an amazing charitable organization with a mandate to improve the health of British Columbians, and gives away over a million dollars a year to do just that.
As a journalist it always fascinates me where my colleagues find their passions. For me it’s how people connect with their houses, for Tom Hawthorn it’s their deaths. And, while some of the people featured in Deadlines: obits of memorable British Columbians are well known, most often it’s the ordinary life that’s the quirkiest and most colourful.
Known for decades as Bernie “Whistling” Smith because he whistled while he patrolled the streets for the VPD
Bernie Smith once told me a story about busting Strathcona bootlegger Wally “Blondie” Wallace in the 1940s. Blondie was a neighbourhood hero, dodging the cops by night and teaching local kids to box in the basement of his house during the day.
Five amazing women who put their stamp on BC in unique ways. There is more information about them in At Home with History, Sensational Victoria and Sensational Vancouver, and in the books listed below.
Capi Blanchet (1891–1961)
Capi Blanchet was found dead in 1961, slumped over her typewriter while writing a sequel to The Curve of Time.
Alvo von Alvensleben not only has a name you couldn’t make up, he’s one of the most fascinating characters in BC’s history. For some mysterious reason he has never rated a biography, but there is a chapter dedicated to him in my book At Home with History. I was just browsing my bookshelf and thinking what an interesting bunch of men and women BC has produced.
Definition of “Noir” from the Free Dictionary: “Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings. Suggestive of danger or violence. Of or relating to the film noir genre.”
When I wrote At Home with History, the 1930s Strathcona seemed a natural place to start.
