by her niece, Mary Parkinson Smith
Known as Mollie in her family, Harriet Mary Heath was born at Roland, Manitoba in 1888, second daughter of George and Margaret Jane Parkinson. She grew up on the family homestead, attended the district school and obtained her teacher’s certificate when she was eighteen. At that time, her father allowed her to put her hair up (a sign of maturity) when she was teaching, but she had to let it down again as soon as she reached home, until she was twenty-one! She continued to teach in rural schools in Manitoba and Alberta until her marriage in 1915 to Harold (Hal) Heath of Nanton. Sometime after they moved to Nanton, Mollie developed T.B. The standard cure for the disease at the time “lots of fresh air” which meant living and sleeping in a tent, summer and winter. Eventually she was sent to Banff to complete her recovery.
She and Hal had adopted a little girl, Ruth, whom she took with her when she separated from her husband. She returned to teaching and was at the school in Bankhead when Sandy Nichol’s wife died, leaving an eighteen-month old daughter, Jessie. Sandy never allowed her to be adopted. After Bankhead closed, Mollie returned to southern Alberta to teach, finally having the school at Wrentham, southeast of Lethbridge. With the beginning of the Great Depression, teachers with higher qualifications than hers were looking for jobs, so she gave up teaching and moved to Nelson, B.C. A boy, who was finishing grade nine the year she was leaving, came to her and said, “Mrs. Heath, may I come with you? I want to finish high school and I know I won’t be able to if I stay here. I’ll get a job after school and help all I can.” So Lee Phillips joined her family. In Nelson, she began looking after foster children as a means of income and because she was always keenly interested in helping young people. Apparently little was said about Lee and many people assumed he was Mollie’s son from first marriage. Imagine the consternation in 1939 when Ruth’s engagement to Lee was announced! However, explanations cleared the air.
In the mid-thirties, Mollie moved to Kaslo, B.C. to become cook at the hospital there. Then when W.W.II broke out, there was suddenly need for teachers because so many men were joining the Services. Mollie subtracted five years from her age, attended university summer school and obtained her Alberta Teacher’s Certificate. Her first job was teaching grade eight in Canmore, where she remained until the war ended. Then she moved to Coaldale, AB to continue teaching until required to retire. Loath to stop the work she loved, she moved on to teach in schools in Hutterite colonies for several more years. At last she did retire, settling in Lethbridge. Later she moved to the Seniors Lodge in Claresholm, finally moving to Rundle Lodge and Sunset Lodge in Calgary. She died there in 1971.
By 1939, when Ruth and Lee were married, Lee had completed high school, apprenticed with a Nelson druggist, and obtained his degree in Pharmacy at U.B.C. He took a position as district salesman for the Wampole Drug Company of Perth, Ont., and later became dominion sales supervisor for the company.
Ruth and Lee had a son and three daughters. In the mid fifties, they moved to Surrey, B.C. where they bought a drug store. Unfortunately, Lee died of lung cancer in 1960. Ruth kept the drug store, hiring a pharmacist, and began working with Welcome Wagon, which she continued to do for many years. She later married K.N. (Nobby) Gamble of Perth. Following Knobby’s death, she married Jack Edmondson in 1999, and they still live in Surrey, B.C.
Jessie married Haviland (Danny) Butler in 1940, when Danny was in the Navy. After the war they lived in Riondel where Danny worked for Cominco. Later they moved to Whitby, Ont., where Jessie died in 1985. They had five daughters and their oldest daughter, Lynn, and her husband, Stanton Foster, have now retired to Kaslo, B.C.
Mrs. H. M. (Mollie) Health, Grade Eight teacher 1942 – 1946
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p. 120-121.
