Daughter of Adoniram “Nide” Warner Smith and Alice Maria Pennell.
Born May 17, 1905 in Rutherglen, Nipissing, Ontario, Canada. Died Feb 14, 1994 in North Bay,
Nipissing Dist., ON, Can (88 years, 8 months). Married Clifford Charles Ollivier Jan 10,
1928 in Rutherglen, Nipissing, Ontario, Canada.
Edna was baptized into St. Margaret’s Anglican Church by the Rev. Gordon Postlethwaite.
She was the only child of Nide and Alice Smith to complete high school and continue to
receive her Teaching Certificate. One of her first positions was likely in Earlton, ON. She
could also play piano. When Vera Hughes (Smith) died after giving birth, Edna and Cliff
adopted the baby (Randy). The Ollivier’s lived in Northern Ontario for about 40 years,
including Ramore (1949) and Iroquois Falls (1950). She taught in Porquois Junction,
Noranda (1959) and Rutherglen (Principal, 1968).
The Olliviers owned a cottage on Kaibuskong Bay (off the Mattawa River/Lake Talon) that
was only accessible via boat, at the time, from the now Lake Talon Marina. Later they would
purchase a cottage further west on the bay from Dr. McLaren and convert it into a beautiful
4-bedroom 2-story home. It had white siding and maroon shutters and two fireplaces: one
on the main level and the other in a huge bedroom on the second level, which later would
be the bedroom of my Grandfather. The home had three garages: one attached to the
house through a breezeway; one perpedicular to the attached garage; and one close to the
lake where all the fishing rods, tackle, minnow nets, life jackets, water skis and water toys
were stored. Later, Cliff built a “Y” shaped dock and had two boats. The “old” cottage was
then used/purchased by Edna’s daughter, Dorothy and became known to me as the
Mawhiney Cottage.
Edna was a skilled seamstress and quilter. She was a member of the Eastern Star, the
Women’s Institute (WI) and St. Margaret’s Anglican Church.
When they both retired and the home on Kaibuskong Bay became too much, they sold it
and moved to a condo/townhome in Calender, Ontario. After Cliff’s stroke, he was moved into a
nursing home in North Bay and Edna lived alone for a time. However, they eventually were
brought together again in a double room at the nursing home (Leisure World).
The Ollivier House
Going to Aunt Edna and Uncle Cliff’s house was like going to a mansion. Their house was huge and was on Lake Talon, down the Pine Lake Road. It had a huge living/dining room with a big wood burning fireplace. The TV was in this room and Grampa Smith, who lived there at the time, had his own chair beside the fireplace and would watch The Edge of Night, his favourite soap opera. His pipe supplies and can of humbugs sat of the right side of the fireplace’s mantle.
There were two huge, massive bedrooms upstairs and two smaller, but still large bedrooms in the main floor. Grampa’s bedroom was upstairs and so was Randy’s. Randy also had his drums set up in his room.
We went to Aunt Edna’s often at Christmas, likely because Grampa was there. The food spread was amazing. Her signature peanut butter balls, plus other standards filled the table. And then there was Skipper, their dog, always ready to eat anything that hit the floor. Wayne even threw the dog candy wrappers which Skipper ate quickly. Skipper was a black terrier, like a Scotty dog.
I remember once going to Aunt Edna’s after I had attended a birthday party at Dianne McLaren’s. I had stuffed my face with “black babies,” a black liquorish jellied candy. While sitting in Aunt Edna’s big spacious luxurious living room chair, at the far end of the room, as far as I could have been from the toilet, I felt suddenly sick to my stomach. Jumping up and running to the bathroom did not prevent me from puking diagonally across the living rug, through the kitchen, finally getting to the bathroom. I was so embarrassed.
Janice Mawhiney was often there too. She is the grand daughter of Aunt Edna, daughter of Dorothy Mawhiney. The Mawhiney’s had a cottage east, down the lake a piece. I think you could drive there, but we always boated there. More about the Mawhiney cottage later. At Aunt Edna’s, Janice knew how to get into the attic, and we would sometimes sneak into this “secret” door and play there.
Usually when Janice was there, so was Tippy. Tippy was the Mawhiney’s dog, a black and white border-collie type dog. We’d have great fun with both Tippy and Skipper
In the summer, there was usually a mosquito coil burning in the corner of the kitchen. There was a little summer-type room that connected one of the two garages to the house. I loved to sit in this room. Outside of it was a cover double swing that faced a beautiful green lawn, huge spruce trees and then the lake. It was so peaceful and beautiful.
At the lake was another garage that smelled of wooden boats, boat motors, fishing rods, life jackets, fishing nets, fishing hooks… smelled like summer. I love the smell of that garage. They had everything in there that a kid could use to have a ball at the lake. Wayne and I would fish from the dock and fill up pails with sunfish, pike and tadpoles, and then throw them all back. We used a big minnow net to catch minnows and an aluminum bait pail with a holed lid to catch frogs. We pulled hooks out of fish’s mouths and felt bad when the hooks went through their eye sockets.
We swam on the right side of the dock, as the left side was mucky. There were occasional blood suckers, but not many. When we’d run and jump of the end of the dock, Skipper was at our heels, trying to nip your legs as you careened off the end.
Aunt Edna’s flower garden was as amazing as Mom’s. She seemed to have flowers everywhere around the house and rock flower garden which edged the forest across the front lawn from the side door (which served as their “front” door).
Uncle Cliff has a wood motorboat, that was brown stained and shiny shellacked. I don’t remember going on the boat very much for joy rides, however we would boat east along the lake to the Mawhiney’s cottage. Before Uncle Cliff and Aunt Edna had the big fancy house, this was their cottage.