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- Seventh generation in America. Marie was a proud Canadian and new her heritage.
- Remberances of My Aunt Marie, by Pat Felker, 2013.
Marie was one of the found members of Golf & Country Club/Gulf, Curling were she could always be found on Saturdays. For twenty-five years she had a pair of red seats, in the first row of the Maple Leaf Gardens. That was back when you could reach out a touch the hockey players. Later they put in glass walls near the goalie poles.
Marie owned a riding horse which was stabled on the Richview Sideroad. After her father deceased, she had to quit school to support mother & brothers.
Marie was one of the first women to have her own car & was a world traveler. One time she took a trip to Montreal with a couple of girlfriends in the backseat. When they came to a very high metal bridge, Marie grip the steering wheel tight & press on. On the other side of the Montreal bridge she turn round to see why her friends were so quiet & she found them cowering on the floor with the hands over their hands! She also visited Europe, Hawaii & many US cities.
Marie liked to drive a good car & sip on glass of premium Canadian whisky.
Spinster. Marie owned a riding horse, boarded him on Richview Side Rd. Member of Weston Gulf & Country Club. She also loved curling. For many years she served tea every week at the CNIB. During the War II support effort she & gramma knitted woolen socks for the 'boys'.
. Marie was a tall, stately lady, brown hair, & dark brown eyes. - One Thanksgiving weekend Aunt Ruby & Marie were at the Erin Fall Fair. On Main St. & the corner of Scotch St. they notice the two story red brick house was for sell. Marie knocked on the door & said her Aunt Ruby had been born in the house. Could they have a little look look inside? The lady with white hair asked Marie to remove her sunglasses. Yes you have the Walker's dark brown eyes, come in. Ruby said the sparse front parlor on the right looked just the same. Over there by the wood stove was were they put the chamber pot, which always froze overnight in the winter. There was a Kitchen plumbing in the back. - PJ Ahlberg 2010.
1961 Sept 18. & the same on 1966 May 16: Soroptimist Club North Toronto & North York. At the home of E Marie Felker, 6 Saskatoon, Weston, 8:00 PM.
Marie Felker was a long time volunteer at the CNIB. She would serve tea & cookies to the blind at their Institute on Bayview Avenue.
1862 July 9, Toronto Soroptimist Club, 17th Annual convention. Several flying to the meeting in Hawaii: Miss Marie Felker, Miss Grace Hutchings.
Ref: Globe & Mail Newspaper, Toronto.
Note: Both ladies were head secretaries to the president of the famous Canadian companies, CCM, Marie Felker & Grace Hutchings, at the Cdn. cookie & candy empire, McCormicks, London, Ontario.- PJA
George S Veraden, CCM president from 1941 until 1962. Braden was said to be a "Strict, upright man" who ruled with an iron hand. Having been sales representative for the Maritime Provinces & Eastern Ontario, Braden had been named export manger in 1922 & general manger in 1933. Despite his extensive experience with the company, Braden failed to connect with the workers the way CCM founder, Tommy Russell had. Aristocratic & aloof, Braden was seldom seen on the factory floor. With Canada's wartime economy in full stride at the time of Braden's takeover at CCM, goods were once again pour from Canada's factories. CCM's production of bicycles for 1940 was as high as it had ever been & could have been higher. Braden cautioned Canadians waiting for bicycles not to get overly excited. With the shortage in steel, Braden warned, "Many of our bicycle employees have been transferred to munitions work." ... Geo. Braden retired on May 9, 1958. The new President, M P Jolly was named the new president of CCM & Tom Nase became, the VP.
Ref: Canada Cycle & Motor, The CCM Story, John A McKenty, 2011.
Notes: Geo. S. Braden has started as a stenography with CCM, so perhaps he was sympathetic to the efficient & hardworking Marie Felker, becoming his secretary. Marie had to forgo her yearning for university education, in order to provide for her widowed mother & younger brothers. Marie accompanied Braden to Montreal during the meetings with C. D. Howe concerning the CCM converting their bicycle mfg. into army boot making, machine guns & Lee Enfield refiles for the World War II effort.
Famous Cdn. photographer, Yousuf Karsh took portrait photos of Braden & his wife with their horses. (Richview Sideroad Riding Stables, Etobicoke?) After his death (c. 1958), his secretary Marie Felker was given the charge of looking after Mrs. Geo. Braden who was in a nursing home.
Employed before Marie employed at CCM was Marie's father, John Felker, painter; & also Aunt Irene Walker, bookkeeper & her sister-in-law, Caroline Felker, assembly line
In 1957 Aunt Marie bought her niece, Patsy the best & most beautiful CCM blue metallic three speed bicycle that a child could ever want.
Marie Felker retired from the CCM after the new president wanted his own person to be secretary. - P J Felker - Ahlberg.
- "FELKER, Ella Marie - Peacefully at Central Park Log, Albion Road, on Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Marie Felker in her 92nd year, daughter of the late John Wesley Felker & Jennie (Walker) Felker. Beloved sister of Charlie Felker & the late John Felker (1203). Marie was a long time employee of Canada Cycle & Motor Limited, a member of Weston Golf Club & in 1986 she was presented with a life membership of the Soroptimist International Club of North Toronto & North York. Funeral service will be held at the Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. W., at Windermere, east of the Jane subway, on Friday, May 25, 2007 at 1 p.m. with visitation beginning at 12 noon. Interment to follow at Erin Union Cemetery." United Church Minister officiated. Cousin Bill Fill gave a touching remembrance of Marie's Life. Buried in a cement liner, as was her mother, beside her parents, Jennie & John Felker. [Descendant of Rebecca Lawrence].
Soroptimist Foundation of Canada, Marie Felker Secretary-Treasurer 1965 - 1975
Ella Marie Felker left a legacy to the club. We have applied the money to various projects & we are having the city plant a tree in her memory. here will be plaque with her name & that she was a member of our club.
S.I. XX contacted the President last fall about the possibility of us assisting girls in Kisumu Kenya to go to school. XX is a development worker who travels widely & has made friends with some Soroptimist' s in Kisumu, Kenya. While visiting there, she heard that a local family had had to sell their cow in order to pay school fees for their daughter. Toronto has donated $750 from the Felker legacy to keep this girl in school & to help a third girl with fees.
Ref: Soroptimist Int. Eastern Canada Region, May 2009.
In Memory of Ella Marie Felker who bequeath $10,000 to the Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto April 2008 to Mar 31, 2009. - - -
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1915 - 2007 (91 years)