Auntie Ruby's Biography, written by Leonard Saunders

Ruby Wilson

Ruby Wilson was born into the Jackson Family in Didsbury, Alberta. Her father was Frank and her mother was Ellen. She had a twin sister Pearl, an older sister Irene, and two younger sisters Hazel and Doris.

She lived on a farm. She attended the Melvin School, which was a small country school, providing education from grade one to eight. One of her jobs was to unharness the horses and put them in the barn at the school.

Ruby had pneumonia when she was young. Her father, Frank Jackson, felt that she was not strong enough to do outside chores so Ruby was delegated to take on many of the inside housekeeping, cooking, and baking chores.

Ruby attended Didsbury High School for grades 9 to 12. She then attended the Henderson Secretarial School which was a 9 month course where she learned typing, shorthand, and book keeping.

In 1941, at 19 years of age she joined the Air Force and went to Ottawa where she joined the “Air Force Public Relations Department.” She sent out news releases for the newspapers and radio to keep the public informed about what was happening on the war front.

Ruby met Harold Wilson when he returned from overseas. The government had put him in an office without any furniture and he asked Ruby if she could help him find a desk and a chair. He asked for a date about one week later. Harold took her to a hockey game. Ruby said the game wasn’t really to her liking as it was too rough and she didn’t like to see people getting hurt. But she did like Harold so they decided to get married. They married in 1946 in their service uniforms.

They went to the Montreal Forum to see a hockey game on their three day honeymoon. Throughout their married life they were able to talk things out and patch things over when they had their differences and carried on in such a fashion for 60 years. Ruby always said her marriage was better than most.

Ruby and Harold were transferred from Ottawa to Dawson City which was the capital of the Yukon Territories at this time. The Whitehorse population grew and it then became the capital of this region and Harold and Ruby then went to work in Whitehorse. It was here that Ruby and Harold began to develop an avid interest in curling which they both enjoyed for many years. They also bought a cabin on Tagish Lake and learned to fish for lake trout. Ruby was the fisherman and Harold was the boat driver.

After spending several years in Whitehorse they went back to Ottawa. However; the lure of the North took them back to Yellowknife in the North West Territories. Aunt Ruby was interviewed to see if she had the skills to live in this country. She convinced them that she was a country girl from Alberta and could bake bread in a wood stove. As a farm girl she had developed many of these skills that she would need. She could tell how hot the oven was by opening the door and feeling the heat to know if it was the right temperature.

In Yellowknife she worked in the Department of Vital Statistics keeping track of marriages, deaths, and helping the residents, some of whom didn’t have very much education, fill out driver’s licenses applications.

After they retired, Ruby and Harold became snow birds traveling south in the winter and back north in the summer to fish at their cabin.