Girlie Koo

Girlie Koo, Kerrisdale Business Icon, Gone at 99

Girlie Koo, the produce matriarch of Kerrisdale’s once JB Hoy grocers, died in mid-September shortly after suffering a fall. She was 99 and up until late summer still taking daily walks with her son Bob. She was born on Pender Street in Chinatown in 1921 but moved to Kerrisdale in 1925 when her father built a store in the 2100 block on the south side of West 41st Avenue.

By 1930, her father, JB Hoy, realized it was better to be on the sunny side of the street,so he bought a building and moved his business directly across West 41st and lived in the above apartment it with his growing family. His second daughter was the first Chinese child born outside of Chinatown in Vancouver. Upon Hoy’s death the business was sold to Allen Koo who Girlie married in 1938. She too raised her family above the retail space.

Upon Allen’s death in 2001, Girlie and her two sons decided to retire and redeveloped their property with a stylish new building which they own to this day.

Girlie was the constant smiling face of JB Hoy’s and saw generations of Kerrisdale children grow and thrive over her nearly 70 years of working the cash register while obtaining some of the finest produce available, long before much larger supermarkets did. You had to be a regular customer to know that her prized and unscathed avocados were kept in the back to escape the ‘squeezing’ hands of the uninitiated.

I personally will miss Girlie as she rarely missed the Carnival Days Parade or Kerrisdale’s annual birthday party in early September. Better yet, she would occasionally arrive at my doorstep with a bag of beautiful, perfect avocados that she had sourced knowing how I loved them.

Girlie Koo, gone from Kerrisdale Village, but always a part of its heart.

There is a short heritage video on You Tube featuring Girlie Koo’s life in Kerrisdale, please go to this link https://youtu.be/c0IA1qW-HhU

Submitted by Terri Clark