Bessie Speers

Audio - Married at 19, Bessie and her husband Roy homesteaded and had eight children, including five delivered at home. A daughter with celiac disease died at age 3. After fire destroyed their home, the family lived in a granary. Her husband died at 52 years, and Bessie continued farming for 16 years. To buy her first car, she sold a cow. Then she worked seven years in the kitchen at Pleasant Valley Lodge. For 30 years, she then lived in Athabasca, where she joined the Royal Purple and enjoyed painting and curling