Family Portrait for Mamie Lizee – 85 Years of Life

April 27, 2008 |

Mamie Lizee celebrates her 85th birthday with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Maple Ridge on Saturday. (Photos by Julia Pelish)

When Mamie Lizee’s children and grandchildren were thinking of what to give her for this year’s birthday the perfect gift idea came to mind. On Saturday, the members of the family who live in the Lower Mainland gathered for a family portrait to celebrate Mamie’s 85th birthday.

“She loves her family so much that we thought that was the best thing to give her,” said her daughter Carol. “It’s what she will enjoy more than anything else.”

The year Mamie was born William Lyon Mackenzie King was in his first term as Prime Minister, nine million people lived in Canada and a team from Vancouver battled for the Stanley Cup. Different times, indeed.

Mamie’s hometown was Port Arthur, Ontario, which no longer exists. It amalgamated with Fort William to form Thunder Bay in 1970. By that time, Mamie had spent more than three decades as a British Columbian. When she was nine years old, she and her family migrated west, settling in the Webster’s Corner neighbourhood of Maple Ridge. Mamie said the biggest change she’s seen in the area is the increase in “the number of people” and “all the buildings”.

The 85th birthday party was held at the lovely Maple Ridge home of Mamie’s son and daughter-in-law, Alan and Barbara. Among those present were Carol’s daughters Nicole, Kim and Angie and their children. Family members in Saskatchewan and Alberta were missed but are sure to be there for the 100th year celebrations!

In 1923, the year Mamie Lizee was born, these were among the notable events:

Canadians Frederick Banting and Charles Best win the Nobel Prize for Medicine after they discovered insulin
The USSR is established on New Year’s Day
Henry Kissinger, writer Norman Mailer, country singer Hank Williams, Bob Barker and astronaut Alan Sheppard are also born
William Lyon Mackenzie King enters his third year as Prime Minister
Archaeologist Howard Carter discovers the remains of King Tut (February 16)
Time magazine hits newsstands on March 3 with retired U.S. Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon on the inaugural cover
The Ottawa Senators win the Stanley Cup on March 31 after beating the Vancouver Maroons and the Edmonton Eskimos in a three-way competition
Yankee Stadium opens on April 18 and 74,000 come out to watch Babe Ruth; later in the year New York celebrates the team’s first ever World Series win
Prince Albert marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in Westminster Abbey on April 26
Stanley Baldwin is elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on May 20
The Irish Civil War ends with the arrest of thousands of IRA members (May 24)
U.S. President Warren G. Harding dies in office on August 2 and is succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge
The Munich Beer Hall Putsch takes place
Rin Tin Tin makes his silver-screen debut to become the world’s first canine movie star
Great Kanto earthquake strikes Tokyo and Yokohama on September 1
Director Cecil B. DeMille premieres “The Ten Commandments” on December 4

Comments

2 Comments so far

Donna on April 28, 2008 4:29 pm
What a gorgeous family! Mamie….happy 80th what a milestone and you look gorgeous! WOW!
Donna on April 28, 2008 5:17 pm
Whoops!I mean’t 85th….who would believe it?