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Muriel "Ellen" Kerr

March 18, 2003

Muriel “Ellen” Kerr

Muriel “Ellen” Gummeson was born to Muriel and Herman Gummeson in Swift Current, Saskatchewan on Aug. 15, 1927. During her early years, the Gummeson family moved to Colwood, B.C. where she attended elementary school in Colwood, and high school in Victoria. After graduation she attended teachers training, Normal School, in Victoria.

Ellen’s first teaching post was at Namu, B.C. from Sept. 1947 to June 1948. Then she made the long move to Topley, B.C. where she taught from Sept. 1948 to June 1950. Next she moved to Smithers, B.C. where she accepted a teaching position at Muheim School from Sept. 1950 to June 1952. It was during the fall of 1950 that she met a man by the name of Herbert W. Kerr who would later become the most important person in her life. They courted for over a year and were married in Victoria on April 12, 1952. From Sept. 1952 until she resigned from teaching full time in June 1967, she taught on and off between Quick Elementary and Telkwa Elementary.

After her marriage, for the next 51 years, Ellen lived happily, first at Round Lake and finally at Quick where she raised eight children. She was a loving mother who was always available to talk with or would just listen, in a very understanding way.

After all the children were grown and had moved out, Ellen and Herb began to celebrate life in their unique way, enjoying their long deserved retirement. They purchased a motor home, joined the Bulkley Valley Oldtime Fiddlers, and enjoyed many years of traveling throughout the province visiting people and places they had long dreamed of, always playing their music. A cherished highlight of these years was a trip across Canada to Halifax on the East Coast to attend a “Fiddles of the World” convention.

On March 18, 2003 our dear wife, life companion, and mother passed away leaving a hole in all our hearts and the hearts of many other family members and friends.

Ellen (Mom) will be sadly missed by: her loving husband, Herbert W. Kerr, and her children, Timothy Kerr (Linda), Anthony Kerr (Marilyn), Patricia Jackson (Dan), Deborah Coffey (Stuart), Julia Oatway (Ted), Lydia Wainwright (Perry), Cynthia Barge (Verne), and Terrance Kerr (Denise), her grandchildren, Trista, Brice, Cameron, Kimberly, Christopher, Sean, Ryan, Amanda, Stephanie, Wendel, and Jennifer, her great-granddaughter Ariana, her brother Michael Gibson (Dawn). She was predeceased by her father, Herman Gummeson, in Feb. 1935, and her mother, Muriel Gibson, in Feb. 1998.

An “Ode to Life” service was held on April 4, 2003 at the Telkwa Community Hall. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in “Ellen’s” name to the Heart & Stroke Foundation at the Royal Bank in Smithers.

The family would like to thank the doctors and nurses in emergency at the hospital for all their care.



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