Clarice (“Clare”) Ruth (Davies) Graham

Lillian Alice Silk (Clare’s mother) was born in Kent County, England. Lillian’s father was possibly involved in the tailoring trade. Lillian, at the age of six, with her father and two brothers, Jim and Alf, emigrated to Canada at the outbreak of World War I and settled in north Winnipeg. They then moved to Fort Rouge in the south part of the city. When the grandfather died, Lillian was taken in by a family to be a helper in the home.

Clare has faint memories of stories told about her mother. Lillian was affectionately called “Cream Puff” by the family because of her soft personality and easygoing ways. She was a stay-at-home mom. Another faint memory is of her mother’s love of roses and gardening. Her father planted perennials for Lillian: lilies-of-the-valley, hollyhocks, and peonies.

(When Clare’s mother died on May 9, 2000, Clare bought a rose for every member of the family to place on the grave.)

Lillian’s husband (Clare‘s father) was Andrew Clarence Davies. He was a machinist for the CNR and worked in Transcona, Winnipeg. He was one of fourteen children. Andrew’s brother Bert was Lillian’s date at the rink one evening until she met Andrew, who took her home that same night!

Lillian and Andrew had six girls: Dorothy Louise, Lorraine Margaret, Velva (Valerie), Clarice Ruth, Joan Ellen, and Patricia Diane. As an aside, all of Lillian’s and Andrew’s grandsons have Andrew as part of their names.

Clare loved school, particularly Grade Nine. She and her group of friends socialized together. Clare says that she was bratty, mischievous, and full of energy. She was on the bus one day on the way to Lord Roberts School when she saw a boy out the window. She remarked to her friend, “That is the boy I am going to marry.” At that time, she did not know who he was but saw him often over the next few years.

Clare also loved to figure skate. One Christmas, her sister Lorraine bought her a pair of figure skates. From that time on over the years she would skate at the rink across the road from home. The very first time on the skates with pics she fell flat on her face. On her father’s 50th birthday she skated 50 times around the rink for him!

As she became older, Clare worked for an insurance company. Her girlfriend, coincidently, was dating Don Graham, the boy whom Clare had vowed to marry one day. They had ended up at the same party. The next day the group met at their usual diner for a chat and Clare made sure she sat next to Don. As they say, the rest is history!

When Don would come courting he would usually go straight into the den where Clare’s father would be watching TV. In those early TV days all of the lights in the room would be turned off so that the watchers could see the screen more clearly. Don always sat in the same chair. One night when he sat, there was no chair! He landed on the floor upsetting the end table and the lamp. Clare’s mom was always changing the furniture! During this upheaval Andrew never took his eyes off the TV screen!

Clare and Don were married on September 10, 1955, in Winnipeg. In 1959, they moved to Whitehorse where Don’s sister and her family lived. Don drove up the highway and Clare flew with their baby, Kenneth.

Their first home in Whitehorse was an apartment over a garage on the corner of 4th Avenue and Ogilvie Street. Claire commented that she still remembers gazing down 4th Avenue watching the tumbleweed on its journey toward Main Street!

Don worked at first for Husky Building Supplies and then for General Enterprise as a purchasing agent, a job that he loved. 

Claire remarked that she was very lonely and depressed in a frontier town that was cold and dark. Because she was a stay-at-home mom with a small child, she did not get to know anyone.

In l961, Don built their house in Riverdale at 31 Teslin Road where they reside to this day. Her daughter, Val, was born in 1962 and as Claire was at home with the baby she decided to also babysit a lot of the neighbour’s children. She and Don gradually got to know and socialize with families in the neighbourhood.

The family spent a lot of their leisure time enjoying camping, hiking, and canoeing on such waterways as Windy Arm, Hitchcock Creek and Atlin. When the children were quite young, Don built a collapsible playpen for use at the beach. One time they rented a houseboat in Atlin and spent about a week on it with their whole family.

Some summers they would also travel back to Manitoba to visit with Don’s family.

Don and Clare and their new friends formed a Yukon Voyageurs’ Canoe Club. They built their first clubhouse on Bowtie Lake and then built a bigger one on Chadburn Lake.  On a Sunday when they all traveled to the lake they would sell popcorn, chocolate, and hamburgers to make a bit of money for the club. The canoe club members took turns organizing potluck dinners where they canoed, rode skidoos, had dinner and visited.

Don and Clare also belonged to a volleyball group. They would play volleyball on a Saturday night and then go to someone’s house and play cards.

Their son, Ken, married Frances Toews in 1981 and they had three children: Lenette, Tristian, and Dena. Val married David Bumstead in 1988 and they had one boy, Andrew.

Clare worked in the Edgewater Hotel in the gift shop for about a year and a half at this time.

Over the years, they went on numerous trips overseas to Germany to visit Don’s brother who was in the military, another trip to October Fest and then Don went again on his own, this time to Switzerland to visit with an old friend.

Clare and her daughter, Val, took trips to Churchill in 2005, Hawaii in 2005 and 2012, Cuba for Lenette’s wedding in 2013, and a Rocky Mountain tour in 2013.

On December 15, 1998, Don retired. Then the fun picked up. Don was a biker, did carving, built houses, helped build the cabin for their canoe club, built a war canoe, made wings for planes in the museum and did a lot of house renovating. Clare made meals, looked after the children, did the gardening and planted the flowerbeds.

Clare was also very active in cross-country skiing for over 25 years, and for over twenty years, was a weekend sailor, often with her husband, but also on her own. Don and Clare took a sailing course in Vancouver and Clare was able to take over the helm of the thirty-foot sailboat and bring it into Vancouver harbour! One notable canoe trip that she and Don did was down the Takhini River from Kusawa Lake to Mendenhall Creek with plenty of white water because the river was in high water.

They socialized with their long-term friends. One project for the group was their potato contest. Each family would plant and tend their potatoes. At the end of September, they would choose their best three potatoes and weigh them. The winner was then taken out to dinner at a place of his or her choice.

At this time their family had grown to include four grandchildren and nine great grandchildren, which brought much joy, excitement and love to Don and Claire.