Frances Blythe’s family is central to the history of our church. I interviewed her by phone and then in her seniors’ residence in Abbotsford, B.C.

For a start, at 85, she is the second of six generations of her family connected to the Unitarian Church in Edmonton. The first generation, Frances’s mother and father, Berneice and John L. Hollinshead, were two of the 75 original Unitarian members. And her son, Lyndon, still attends UCE! In fact, her four children attended UCE. It is fascinating that they are the only family that spans six generations in the Edmonton Unitarian church, including her great-grandson.

Frances’s parents, first generation Unitarians

Frances’s father, John Hollinshead, was the son of Lincolnshire, England parents who went first to the U.S.A., and then moved to Botha, Alberta (east of Lacombe and Stettler) in 1906 and homesteaded. Like many Unitarians, Frances’s father was brought up in a very religious family and signed a pledge never to smoke or drink. In the end, her grandfather ran the hardware store in Botha that still has the Hollinshead name on it. (In fact, the family still has mineral rights to the original homestead.)

After serving time as a prisoner of war, her father, John, came back from overseas in 1919 and studied Education at University of Alberta. As a well spoken and outspoken student, he was on the Students’ Council. On graduation, he continued teaching. In 1922, John married Berneice (Hegler), a Home Economics student from a prominent family. His first school after university was in Stony Plain, then at a residential school in St. Albert, and finally as principal of a school in Jasper. In a letter that Frances still has, her father wrote to his mother about Frances’s 1925 birth and about going out stooking grain to make extra money!

In Jasper, John Hollinshead started the Jasper/Edson Signal newspaper. At that time there were no roads and he had to use the train for transportation. He was unable to support the family with the newspaper work, so quit and returned to teaching.

Berneice was an extraordinary woman herself. In the Alberta Provincial Archives are six tapes of interviews she did about the 1907 (when she moved to Edmonton at age 5) to 1975 era. The CBC also interviewed Berneice on an afternoon talk show about euthanasia.

In a telephone conversation on July 9, 2010, Ruth Patrick said Frances’s mother, Berneice, was a fascinating woman. Ruth was obviously close to Frances and, in later years, they went on some trips together. Ruth Patrick presented Frances’s father with the W.H. Alexander Award and, as chaplain, conducted the memorial service for her mother. Frances describes her parents as “top notch”! When the UCE started a chapter of the UU Women’s Federation, the women honoured Berneice Hollinshead by naming their chapter after her. She also became a trustee in the church in 1954 and, in the 1950s, her father was in charge of Church School education and an unofficial greeter.

Both Frances’s grandparents lived to age 90 and 96 and are buried in the Botha cemetery. Frances’s mother and father are buried in an Edmonton cemetery.

Frances’s  life in the Unitarian Church

Frances has some colourful memories of going to Sunday School in the mid-1930s by streetcar. The tickets were 10 for 25 cents and they had to walk home over the High Level Bridge because her parents couldn’t afford two tickets per child on one day. Carl Storm was the minister then, and Frances remembers going to visit W.H. Alexander on Saskatchewan Drive and playing with a young girl from Spain.

Frances was treasurer of the UCE Church School and her mother, Berneice, kept the money in her purse. Their home was robbed and her purse was stolen: both the money and her diamond ring were stolen. They found the empty purse four blocks away. When she was 13, 14, and 15, Frances’s father played Penny, Penny, Who has the Penny? with his children on Saturday evenings. The child who won gave the pennies as collection at the United Church.  His advice to his children was, “Go, listen, but don’t believe everything you hear.”

In 1939, the first Unitarian church closed its doors. On July 26, 1947, Frances and George Evans were married in Central United Church at 99^th Street and 106^th Avenue.

Even at 85 (and still nearly six feet tall), Frances enthuses about being a Unitarian. She still sends her pledge every year, and said that there were Unitarian fellowships in Abbotsford and Chilliwack when she first went there — though they have “dwindled away”. But UCE still means a lot to her: “It has been part of my life for over 70 years.” She was on the Board of Trustees in 1971-1972 and her son Bob was chair of the UCE Board in the eighties, the youngest board chair in the church at that stage.

Her beliefs include the axiom to “Be yourself”, and she remembers her father, the atheist, strongly influencing her. Frances herself is agnostic. Her father influenced her to join the army at a time when women usually stayed home.

With four young children when her husband, George Evans, died, Frances started working for the federal government. She worked for National Defence for four years.

Her life is the story of a strong, independent woman and single mother. The Alberta provincial government offered her a job with more money to work as a Correctional Officer at the Alberta Institution for Girls. But they wanted her to work nights and, as a single mother of four children, she said no. She remembered receiving Mother’s Allowance for only two years. Later she worked with Old Age Security when the Guaranteed Income Supplement became a program. Between 1967 and 1985, Frances worked for Health and Welfare Canada.

She received a 25-year employee recognition certificate signed by Prime Minister Trudeau and a 26-year Retirement Scroll, signed by Prime Minister Mulroney.

Frances has fond memories of many people in UCE. She mentioned Ruth and Freeman Patrick, Bernie and Dorothy Keeler, Don and Elaine Royer, Bill and Elizabeth Brown, and Phyllis and Ken Ferguson. She remembered when, early on, Ruth and Freeman Patrick went with them to Rev. Charles Eddis’s home on Sunday evenings for lessons on Unitarianism. Ruth and Frances were pregnant at the same time with Bill Patrick and Lyndon Evans, and they all went for memorable family picnics together.

Frances’s memory at this age of 85 is amazingly acute, and she loved recounting church and family narratives. Even today in her seniors’ home in Abbotsford, Frances carries out the job of proofreading a newsletter.

I liked Frances’s humour and her appreciation of a church with no bibles, where she could say “I like Her sing instead of Hymn Sing!” She still loves Hymn No. 60, “Morning has broken” and treasures her mom’s copy of Phillip Hewett’s book of her Mom’s is “still part of me”.

Interviewed 2010

Born: 1925

Birthplace: Edmonton, Alberta

Places lived: Edmonton, Calgary, Sidney, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Chilliwack, Abbotsford

Husbands: Frances married George Evans in 1947, a charter member when church was formed, and he died of a heart condition at 35 in 1959. After being widowed for 25 years, Frances married John Blythe in 1984. She had known him in 1944 and met him 40 years later. He died in 1991.

Children:

Bob Evans: UCE president in 1980s; his daughter Erin married at UCE; he died at 47 in 1995.

Lyndon Evans: he and his wife Arlene are UCE members; their grandson Devin had a dedication ceremony at UCE.

Larry Evans: lives in St. Albert; did free plumbing for the church way back.

Rhonda: went to Unitarian Church in Montreal when Charles Eddis was there; daughter Danielle goes to Unitarian church in Ottawa occasionally.