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Born:
Passed: October 1, 2009
Former Slave Lake resident Wyonne White is being remembered as a fun-loving person who “really enjoyed life,” and also as a hard and conscientious worker. White died a few weeks shy of her 61st birthday, on Oct. 1 in Camrose, of cancer.
“She was a top notch person,” says M.D. #124 Reeve Denny Garratt, who employed White in the social services consulting firm he owned with Peter Moore. “She was a trusted employee and a good friend.”
White, a native of Viking, Alberta, came to Slave Lake back in the late 1960s or early 1970s with her then husband Bob Welch, who worked for Forestry. That’s how Lou Foley of Smith got to know her. “She was a very fun-loving type of person,” he recalls. “We played a few jokes on each other over the years.” Such as? “One Hallowe’en we snuck up there and turned the power off on the pole.”
White started her working career in Slave Lake at Canada Manpower, following which she was an office manager for Garratt and Moore. “She was the one that kept Peter and I in line, and she was good at it,” says Garratt. Moore recalls her as “a great lady,” who “was always concerned about others before herself. “She had a lot of friends around Alberta,” Moore says.
An assistant manager’s position at the Northwest Inn followed the Garratt and Moore period; sales manager at the Sawridge Hotel came next, which led to her taking over the management of residential and commercial properties for the Sawridge Band.
Along the way, White served a couple of terms as councillor for Improvement District #17 and the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River, and also sat on the regional health authority board. After Slave Lake, she spent five years in Calgary as an office administrator for a concrete company.
“Managing a hotel in Wainwright was her next challenge,” says an obituary submitted to The Leader last week, “and then it was off to Camrose where she spent her last two years. “One of Wyonne’s proudest moments was the time she spent in Thailand teaching English. She made many wonderful friends there and loved to talk about all of her memories of that time.”
White was pre-deceased by her mother Florence and father Bill, brothers Bill Jr. and Raymond and sister Yvonne. She leaves to mourn her two sons and their families: Lance (Michelle), Zoe and Kaz; Justin (Lyn), Chase and Jackson; sister Beth and many other relatives and friends. A memorial service was held on Oct. 5 in White’s hometown of Kinsella. Donations in her name can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society or to the cause of finding a cure for juvenile diabetes.
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