Yellowknife pioneer dies at 95
Aurel Lemay spent 75 years in Yellowknife, worked at Negus and Con mines; will be remembered for generous heart
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Aurel Lemay is being remembered as a pioneer who would do anything for his co-workers, his neighbours and his friends back when most people needed his help just to survive in Yellowknife. Lemay died on July 8 at the age of 95.
Annette Lemay sits in her living room Monday. Annette, 93, was reflecting on her husband's long and storied legacy in the city after he died July 8 at age 95. - John McFadden/NNSL photo
This photo of Aurel Lemay, left, and his wife Annette Lemay was taken in 1952 at the Negus gold mine. Aurel, a Yellowknife pioneer, died last week at age 95. Annette, 93, said her husband of 63 years is being remembered for his kind heart and pioneer spirit. - photo courtesy of Rachael Gauthier
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He was working on a farm in Lac La Biche, Alta., when he came to the city to join his father some 75 years ago to be a labourer at the old Negus Mine, a city gold mine that was active between 1939 and 1952. Lemay moved up the ranks at the mine quickly, becoming the boiler maintainer which meant he was responsible for burning four cords of wood every 12-hour shift. He then became the go-to guy when underground mining equipment had to be maintained or repaired. Lemay continued that handyman position until the mine's closure. He then transferred to Con Mine as a hoistman. He trained and mentored many workers in that job until he retired in 1983.
He leaves his wife Annette, 93, after 63 years of marriage - all of it spent it Yellowknife. She met him in 1951 when he travelled home to the Montreal area for a vacation and then she followed him back to Yellowknife.
"My intention was to work at the Hudson's Bay Company store but I never actually worked a day there," she said. "I just stayed at home with the woman who would become my mother-in-law. I did help out at the flea market for the church."
She got to know Aurel better when he would bring the family water every day after his shift at the mine, long before there was running water in Yellowknife.
It was during those days that they became smitten with each other, said Annette's niece Dorothy Gauthier. They were married in May of the following year. She was 30 and Aurel was 32.
More than 50 years later, Lemay Drive in the Niven subdivision would be named for the couple, after somebody Aurel trained in the mining industry put his name forward.
When the Negus Mine closed, the company had several houses still on the site. Aurel and Annette bought one of the homes for $500 and had it moved to 55 Street where she continues to live in.
The couple did not have any children but both of them spent time looking after their nieces and nephews.
"He was a very dependable, loving man. For us the neighbours were important and we were good neighbours for years and years," said Annette. "We had Italian neighbours and when they came here they couldn't talk English.
"I used to tell them they were in the same position when I got here, I couldn't speak English well. People who were here didn't have their folks so the neighbours became your family."
Aurel and Annette's nephew Marc Gauthier, who lives in Yellowknife, said Aurel was always known as a very hard worker.
"One of his legacies at the mine was that he was a hoistman for many years and when the mining industry was changing he was a trainer and a mentor," Gauthier said. "He trained some of the first hoistwomen in Canada and he was very proud of that."
He was always willing to help everybody and he had the biggest heart, Marc said.
"He was an avid gardener well into his 80s and he was rototilling everybody's gardens for them," he said. "Then in the fall when he had his potato harvest, every neighbour got their bucket of potatoes. He was generous like you wouldn't believe."
He befriended the Italian community and they befriended him, teaching him how to make wine, Marc said.
He was a humble man and it was never about him - he didn't have an angry bone in his body, he said.
Annette said she tries not to dwell on her partner of 63 years not being here any more but that she is already missing her husband.
"I miss that man of mine sitting there," she said. "But that's life but my life will not stop now - it will keep on."
Annette intends to eventually move into the Avens Centre where she said she has several friends.
A memorial service for Aurel Lemay is being held today at the Baker Centre at 2 p.m.
