Klein’s early schooling included Mirror stint LES STULBERG Independent reporter Ralph Klein seemed to have a connection to everyone and everywhere. One of his early ties to the Stettler region was that he attended school in Mirror as a child. “He went to school with my kids for two years,” Bashaw Valley Lodge resident Walter Buelow said of Klein, the former Alberta premier who died last Friday in his hometown of Calgary. He was 70. George Gaudin of Mirror said he “certainly remembered” when Klein attended school in Mirror. Klein was “10 to 12 years old” at the time, Gaudin said. “His step-dad, Lorne MacBeth, worked on the railroad in Mirror.” During that time, Klein went by the surname of MacBeth, Gaudin said. Klein’s parents — Phillip, a pro-wrestler, and Florence Klein — divorced when he was six years old.
After a few years in rural Alberta with his mother and stepfather, Klein later lived with his maternal grandparents in Calgary, the city he would later serve as mayor and represent as premier. Local Tories and people of all political stripes had stories to tell about Klein, known for his folksy and sometimes controversial style. Erskine’s Jean MacDonald recalled that her fondest memory of Klein was accompanying him on a boat trip around the entire perimeter of Buffalo Lake. He was environment minister with the Getty government at the time and was sent to determine the feasibility of stabilizing the lake, she said. “Ralph was very instrumental in the stabilization project of the lake.” Afterward, considerable development occurred along the lake, resulting in substantial financial impact for the region. “He was down to earth — an easy-toget-to-know premier,” MacDonald said of Klein. “You didn’t have to guess what he
thought, (because) he told it the way it was.” Former Drumheller-Stettler MLA Jack Hayden said he got to know Klein “quite well.” “He was premier the whole six years I was president of AAMDC (Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties),” Hayden said. “I enjoyed working with him. We had a good relationship. Being the former mayor of Calgary, he understood municipal politics.” Klein nominated Hayden when he received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal 10 years ago. “I will never forget that,” Hayden said. “He left the province in better shape than he found it.” Klein became Alberta’s 12th premier in 1992. He became a national figure and was often called “King Ralph” during his enduring career. His death came just a few months after the passing of another former Alberta premier, Peter Lougheed.
Canadian Press
RALPH KLEIN “told it the way it was.” For more on Klein’s death, see Page 2.
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Happy 100th birthday, Rex The 1940s were ‘the best years’ for Stettler’s healthy, happy centenarian RICHARD FROESE Independent reporter Born in the Stettler area 100 years ago, Rex Shuckburgh became the latest centenarian as friends and family honoured him last Saturday. Shuckburgh was born March 28, 1913, just four years after his parents William and Dorothy Shuckburgh settled west of Stettler from England. “I feel so good, I could go out and do a day’s stooking,” Shuckburgh said in an interview with the Stettler Independent at his home in Paragon Place, where he moved to 10 years ago after 90 years of life on the farm. “I really had a good life — I’ve always been healthy,” said Shuckburgh, who wore a novelty button that stated “I’ve survived damn near everything.” Born as the third child in the family of eight children, he and his late wife June raised two children and he now has two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, who were among those who celebrated the milestone. “It was a hell of a crowd,” said Shuckburgh, always with a ready and wide smile. “I saw lots of people who I hadn’t seen for many years.” His younger brother Trevor travelled all the way from Victoria, B.C., for the day to celebrate and reflect. Shuckburgh was born on the family farm now on the western border of the Town of Stettler on the farm now operated by nephew Bill and Lillian Kirtley. That’s where he spent and enjoyed his life. “I could do most anything,” said Shuckburgh, who seemed to live a worryfree life. “He told somebody the other day that he never worried about anything,” said his son Doug. As a student of Silver Prairie School about three miles northwest of Stettler, he walked to school every day, a round trip of five miles. “I used to fire the furnace at the school when the janitor went for lunch,” Shuckburgh said. “The brick
RICHARD FROESE/Independent reporter
Rex Shuckburgh of Stettler celebrates his 100th birthday Saturday in Stettler with son Doug Shuckburgh and daughter Audrey Shuckburgh.
school building was colder than old hell. “I went to work after Grade 8 for $15 a month. I would stook 75 acres.” Farming was the life for the senior. “I went to work when after I farmed with my brother Leo for 40 years,” from 1933 to 1973, he said. That was the same mixed farm of 16 quarters with six or seven Jersey cows
he remembers milking in his youth, along with pigs, chickens and turkeys and fields of grain. Life was pretty simple, even before the days of power and technology. “One of the greatest things to come to the farm were rubber tires on tractors and combines, and round balers,” Shuckburgh said. “We didn’t get electricity until 1949. People were
brought up without it, and they just keep their butter and milk down the well.” Even without power, he said the 1940s were the best times for him and the farm as the economy started to rebound after the Great Depression of the 1930s. “Grain prices started to go and make farming more prosperous again,” Schuckburgh said. As the Stettler
community continued to grow and boom, he became active in service clubs. Shuckburgh was afounding member of the Kinsmen Club of Stettler, which chartered in 1946 and then he graduated to the K-40 Club about 10 years later. In the mid-1970s, Shuckburgh joined the Rotary Club of Stettler, where he was active until the late 1980s.
Although he never served any executive positions, he was a loyal servant. “I’m just a worker,” said Schuckburgh, who was also a good supporter of social activities at Simon’s RV. Still alert and with a strong mind, he remains eager to share stories and ideas of a life full of changes and progress, along with struggles and lessons learned along the way.
JOHN MacNEIL/Independent editor
A field of deer near Big Valley in late winter paints a Prairie postcard. For more scenic shots from the region, see pages B11 and B12.
Readers can also find the Stettler Independent at stettlerindependent.com