Fonds - Frank Venables family fonds

Ernest Charles "Frank" Venables (1899-1986) was born in Walsall, England. At the age of six he came to Canada with his mother and his two brothers, Jack and Vince. Another brother, Wilfred, was born in Canada in 1908 and died in 1935. Frank received his education in Alberta. In 1918, while serving overseas in World War I he married Vera Martin. Vera and Frank shared the same birthdate, March 31. They came to Oliver in the early 1920s where Frank worked on the South Okanagan Lands Project. He established an orchard on 15 acres of land south of town. His community involvement in education and health were extensive; the high school auditorium is named after him. In 1954, he was the recipient of Oliver's Good Citizen Award. Frank and Vera had four children, two sons, Robert and Norman, and two daughters, Vera and Yvonne. Frank also had a step-daughter, Ellen Carpenter, daughter of his second wife, Mary Ellen. Elsie Winnifred Vera Venables, nee Martin, (1899-1976) was born in Southampton, England and came to Canada as a war bride in 1919. According to her husband she was the first white woman to live in Oliver. She was a charter member of the Oliver Order of the Royal Purple, taught Sunday School for many years at the Oliver United Church, worked in the Fairview School for the mentally challenged and was an excellent hostess for school board functions. She also enjoyed gardening. Vincent Venables owned and operated a dance school in Penticton. His dance troupe performed in parades and entertained with ballet and tap dancing and acrobatics at various functions in Oliver. His 1938 band, the Vince Venables Bell Boy Orchestra, provided music at dances.