Sam McBride: Other Win Foote Photos in the 1906-1917 Period in West Kootenay

In addition to the scans of Winifred Foote`s 1906-1908 scrapbook that were in my previous posting on this blog, here are other images from the family collection. These are scans from original prints in family files.

My grandmother Win rarely wrote on the back of prints, but over the years I have been able to get identification of many of the photos from my father Leigh McBride, his cousins Blake Allan and Jim Allan (nephews of Win), and family friends Lois Whimster Arnesen and Edna Steed Whiteley. Edna told me that the Steeds and Footes both came to Nelson from Perth, Ontario, which led some people to think they were related, but they weren`t. The Steeds and McBrides were neighbours in the Hoover Street area of Nelson, and their children played together as toddlers.

For reference, I have also included a scan of Win`s obituary that was in the Nelson Daily News following her death in July 1960.

My memories of Win from early childhood are of a stout elderly lady in poor health who had difficulty speaking. I later learned that she had diabetes and likely also Parkinsons Disease, which her son Leigh would also suffer from in his last decade. The one thing she wanted (and was able) to do with her grandchildren was play bingo. Leigh said her mind was never the same after the shock of being notified that her other son Kenneth Gilbert McBride was killed in the war in Italy in September 1944.

Though eight years older than Win, her husband R.L. McBride was much healthier than her during their marriage years. So many people were surprised when he died in 1959, a year before his wife`s death. They are buried in Nelson Cemetery, next to R.L.`s first wife Eva Hume and their stillborn daughter Marjory.

hotel at Balfour

Edna and Dr. W.R. Steed (father of Edna) hamming for camera

Clockwise, from top left: Win paddling; Jim Foote and daughters Lil, Gladys, Isobel and Marion; and Roland Leigh McBride

orchard and sanatorium at Balfour

Glad Foote (second from left) and friends

The 5 Foote sisters, from left: Win, Marion, Glad, Isobel and Lil.

R.L. McBride on Ward Street in Nelson. Note the firehall, Catholic Church, Central School and horses.

Visit by the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VIII) in 1919. Appears to be at small golf course next to the hotel in Balfour.

From top left: From wedding of R.L. McBride`s sister Edith to Garfield Monroe in 1919. Her parents Dick and Fanny McBride are beside the young couple; the four Foote sisters in the early 1950s (Glad, Lil, Win and Isobel); Isobel`s husband Eddie Murphy, a keen fisherman; Win in the 1940s; her mother Edith Foote in about 1908.