Write up submitted by Edith Sasseville, Peggy Hansen’s daughter
Peggy Hansen (nee Spall) was born in Keremeos B.C., on June 2, 1921. Her father was a provincial policeman for the South Okanagan territory and the jail was located in Keremeos. At age 16 she contracted osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone. They didn’t have penicillin back then and her parents were told to prepare for her death. She beat all the odds and went on to enjoy her teenage years.
She became engaged in her early twenties but unfortunately her fiancé died of appendicitis while overseas in World War II. She was working in a factory in Vancouver at the time making airplane parts for Boeing. The death of her fiancé caused her to rethink her future plans. She left the factory and went to school to train to become a teacher. Her first teaching assignment was in Savona, B.C. She had a one-room schoolhouse with an outdoor privy and a wood burning stove for heat.
She went from there to Cloverdale and taught at Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary. While playing in a Cloverdale recreational badminton league she met her husband, Willy Hansen. After a scant two-month romance they were married on Jan. 10, 1948. At that time, you were not allowed to be a married woman and teach school, so she had to resign.
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She then poured her energies into helping her husband build their Cloverdale Business, Hansen Quality Shoes and Repairs and over the next 20 years raised three daughters. Peggy loved to entertain, garden, bowl and take courses such as “Christmas Gift Wrapping.” She and Willie took ballroom dancing classes and joined a square-dancing club.
In the mid-sixties they organized a square-dancing club in Cloverdale for children called the Elk Eighters. They had quite a large group. Peggy and Willy were involved with the Cloverdale United Church and Peggy was the sunday school superintendent for years and they both ran the youth group when their daughters got older.
At age 46 she and her husband made some major life changes. They sold their business and Willy went to work for the painting crew for the Surrey School District and Peggy went to UBC to get her teaching degree. She became a teacher-librarian and retired at the age of 61 from Cloverdale Elementary.
They then sold their Cloverdale home where they had resided for 40 years and spent winters in Yuma, Arizona and summers travelling the world. Peggy’s love of travel was so great that she took each of her grandchildren on a world trip on their sixteenth birthdays. All of them still share memories of their world adventures with grandma and grandpa.
When she turned 80, they moved into a suite in her daughters White Rock home. She continued to busy herself quilting with retired teacher friends, playing bridge, researching family genealogy, and lawn bowling. Willy died in 2012 and Peggy, then 90 years of age, moved into Rosemary Heights Senior Village where she still resides.
Helping her celebrate her 100th birthday (COVID-style) were her two remaining daughters, seven grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
For those who wish, congratulatory messages can be sent to edithsasseville55@gmail.com.
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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