Cora (Sheaves) Grant

Cora, seated on a vintage vehicle.

On September 3, 1960, Cora, Moe and Bill Whittleton came down in a Cessna on take-off at Michie Lake. Somehow the plane wrapped itself around a spruce tree but no bones were broken. It was 5:50 in the afternoon. They spent two nights out there before being picked up in a Beaver by PWA.

Cora was born in 1930 and grew up in Sapperton located in the northeast end of New Westminster, B.C., during the depression and war years. After high school, she attended Vancouver School of Art for four years. Then, at her mother’s wishes, Cora went to Normal School, a teacher training program for high schools. After one week she quit. Teaching was not for her. During the summers, she sailed north on the Princess Louise and worked for White Pass at Bennett Lake.

Cora spent three seasons there from the first of May to the end of September. It was a great place to work and make money for the next school term. The girls used to ride the Casey car into Carcross and pick up their mail. That is where Cora met her future husband, Moe Grant, who was a private pilot. Cora worked with Moe’s sister Leslie at Bennett. Because of the strike at White Pass, she moved to Whitehorse in 1953.

Although she did not know how to drive, Cora had planned to buy a car, work and travel her way across Canada but that plan was to change. She married in November 1953, at the home of her in-laws in Valleyview and used her money for the down payment on a fifty-year-old, one-and-a-half storey frame house previously owned by her in-laws. The Grant seniors, Gladys and Hugh, lived there from 1948 to 1952 and then rented it to Millie and Don Jones for about a year. It was built in 1901.

Because there were two houses built on the same lot, the outhouse was on the next door neighbour’s property. Well, Cora, would have none of that so a porch was built on the back of the house. Murphy would come by with his Honey Wagon and collect the chemical toilet pails as he did all over town. Later on, a hole was dug by Wigwam Harry for the furnace under the house. He had to be paid immediately or he might fill the hole back in as he was known to do.

In 1954, son George was born and has now retired from flying for Air Canada. He attended grades one and half of grade two in the old three-room school on Lambert Street. That was the last year that the school operated. In 1956, the second son, David, was born and he attended the same school for one year. He was a journeyman carpenter and heavy equipment operator. He was renowned for his bobcat abilities. Cora lost David to cancer a few years ago.

There were no cupboards in the kitchen so Cora built the kitchen cupboards herself. Later on, in 1975, Nelson’s Hardware put in a bathroom on the second floor using one of the bedrooms. Again, there were no closets so she built a wall of closet space.

Cora painted signs and worked at the Whitehorse Star for years doing the artwork. She raised two boys while her husband was often away flying.

Cora is very talented in restoring old furniture. She says most of the knowledge came from how-to books like the Furniture Doctor and Popular Science; however, she had her own special talent. With her glue, clamps, and a product called Watco Oil, Cora would make any item beautiful. She would travel all over the Yukon looking for old materials with which to work. With her dog, Paddy, she would go out and dig for old bottles. The purple glass she found lying around is from the years between 1880 and 1910.

Cora also learned how to do caning on hair seats with bamboo strips. This was a very time-consuming task, but she did it perfectly. And she would also upholster furniture for folks. For years, she has sold the restored items from her front verandah. There is a sign outside her house that reads:

Old Stuff, Collectibles & Antiques
If you wish to create something new,
You must first love something old.

Cora went hunting for sheep. The men, like Bill Whittleton and Harold Van Buskirk, taught her to hunt. Then she taught the women, like Doreen Krause and Jean Harbottle, to hunt. It was a lot of fun being out with friends. She took her boys with her sheep hunting many times and they have a lot of good stories to tell.

On September 3, 1960, Cora, Moe and Bill Whittleton came down in a Cessna on take-off at Michie Lake. Somehow the plane wrapped itself around a spruce tree but no bones were broken. It was 5:50 in the afternoon. They spent two nights out there before being picked up in a Beaver by PWA. They were lucky.

Other hobbies of Cora’s were water colouring and oil painting. Years ago, Cora did a painting of the church at Bennett Lake and it is just beautiful. Also, she was proficient at the art of calligraphy. For years, Cora did contract work for the government that included writing the menus for the Monte Carlo Dining Room. When Cora was not doing anything else, she sewed.

About thirty years ago, Cora was able to attain a cabin at Schwatka Lake where she put in a big garden and had lots of wild things growing. The cabin was moved up to its present spot when the Whitehorse dam was built and the area was flooded to make a lake. The cabin was rebuilt in 1930 by Clem Emminger with logs from the old NWMP post located at the north end of Miles Canyon. It had already been declared a park in 1930. She got the cabin from Tommy Cyr who would walk to the White Pass train station at the end of Main Street where he worked as the cashier for years.

Cora got a recipe from the cook at Bennett Lake for his biscuits that they fed to the dogs out there. Paddy learned to love the biscuits, too. The dog stepped on something that went through his foot. While Cora held the dog and removed the object, Moe fed Paddy the biscuits. After that, Cora always made up a batch for Paddy.

Every year Cora would go up Grey Mountain with her chainsaw to cut and buck her own wood. It would take fifteen loads with her small truck to keep her warm for the winter. She did this until she was seventy-five years old.

In her later years, she lived in a wonderful old house built in 1901. It is one of the oldest houses in Whitehorse.

Although she had been divorced for many years, Cora sat with Moe through his final hours.

Cora Grant, in her own quiet way was a very strong and resourceful woman. This gentle woman had made a difference in the Yukon and it is a better place because of a woman like Cora. As she would comment, “At any rate, be thankful for what you got.”

Cora had just recently moved to Whistle Bend. She passed away February 15, 2020.