Person:Flossie Henderson (1)

There is an excellent photo of Flossie at this site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donsmith/WP02/WP02_013.HTM

Flossie Lackey was the only child of Clayton and Jennie Henderson of Wardsville, Ontario. Born on February 5th, 1897 she came to Alberta with her parents during the winter of 1906. Her first recollection of her lifetime home to be, was getting off the train at Erskine, Alberta to what seemed to be mountains of snow. After a brief stay in the area, the pioneer family headed north to their permanent destination in the old Strathcona area of Edmonton. Their house was located just east of 109th St. near the Granite Curling Club. Mr. Henderson worked as a carpenter until asthma forced him and his wife to move to Vancouver. Meanwhile Flossie was busy obtaining her B.A. at the nearby fledgling University of Alberta. She had hoped to become a registered nurse but was discouraged from this by her parents, so became a teacher instead.

Much of Flossie's (Miss Henderson's) teaching career was spent at rural school divisions like Queenie (near Vermilion), CHOICE -No. 3126 (S.E. of Lougheed), Arnold (south of Hardisty) and Ardrossan where she met Hamilton Rogers Lackey who was also a teacher at the time. "Hammy" and Flossie were married in Vancouver but quickly returned to their beloved Alberta where Hammy was employed as an apprentice druggist with McDermid's Drugs in Lacombe. Following their tenure in Lacombe, the Lackey's moved to Castor where Hammy was employed as a druggist with the McDermid Drug Co. in that centre.

In 1945 the Lackeys purchased Harvey’s Drug Store in Killam and worked together operating Lackey’s Drug Store until their retirement in 1962. Flossie was active in the I.O.D.E., the Eastern Star and faithfully took her turns at the Killam Library. She was well read, a pianist and kept herself well informed on world affairs. Flossie lived in and maintained her own home and yard until the spring of 1983 when a broken hip and later blindness forced her to become permanently hospitalized. Flossie had a great love for animals and nature, was an astute bookkeeper, an ardent sports fan (as was her husband), and was very loyal to her community, her province and her country (at the age of 80 she was considering learning some French).

The Killam Auxiliary Hospital was her home for 5 years prior to the time of her passing on January 6, 1990. Flossie Lackey was predeceased by her husband Hamilton in June of 1972 and is survived by several nieces and nephews and cousins in and around Edmonton and Ardrossan as well as other relatives around Strome and Viking.

Funeral services were held on Wednesday, January 10 at Knox United Church in Killam. Interment followed in the Killam Cemetery.

SNIPPETS

1901 Census: Mosa, MIDDLESEX, ON, birth date 5 Feb 1896, age 4, born ON.

1911 Census: Strathcona, AB, Feb 1897, age 14, born ON

1916 Census: Edmonton, STRATHCONA , AB, page 27, line 7, age 19, born ON, Anglican, Irish, public school teacher.

1917 Border crossing: By ferry into Windsor, ON, June 5th 1917, Florence Henderson age 16, born On, citizen of CAN, through Detroit from Alberta, mother Jennie, age 41.

1933 when father died, she lived in Castor, Alberta.

Hamilton, a teacher and later pharmacist, married a Baker School teacher, Flossie Henderson, who boarded at Storms. She obtained her B.A. Degree from the University of Alberta.

See the Edmonton Journal Jan 9, 1990 page B5 or Jan 10,1990 page B4 for her obituary.