Remembering our roots ~ Wally & Linda Freeman

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

Wally’s grandfather, Harry Freeman, was born in Leicestershire, England in 1877, and immigrated to Canada in 1905, where he worked for a construction company in Calgary until 1908. He then moved to the CPR Farm in Strathmore, where he worked as the horticulturist in the greenhouses. In 1909, he returned to England, where the following year (1910) he married Polly Springthorpe of Rutland, England and brought her to Canada in 1910. They had four sons and two daughters. Wally’s maternal grandparents Tom and Jesse Glendinning arrived in Canada in 1904 or 1905.
Wally’s parents were Johnny and Tena Freeman, and he was born at Grace Hospital, in Calgary in 1946. He has no siblings. He attended Samuel Crowther High School, the first class of the new school opened in 1954, and he was in the first class to graduate. In his early years, he was a member of the W.I.D. “Rat Pack” spending his time “south” of the highway. He joined the City of Calgary Fire Department in 1968, where he worked for 30 years. From 1978 to 2006 he was a member of the Strathmore Volunteer Fire Dept., serving as Fire Chief from 2001 to 2004. In 1989, he served as a Town Councillor for three months, before being promoted to Mayor through 1992. In those days, a common pastime in the afternoon was to play golf. So, there he would be on the golf course, when a member of his staff would telephone him. After advising the caller that he was on a ‘course,’ the caller would apologize and hang up. To this day, Wally doesn’t think those callers knew he was on the golf course!
Linda was born in Russell, Man. in 1948, the second oldest of three children, two sisters Diana and Kathy, and brother Ken. With her parents Al and Fan Cousins, the family moved to Taber, where her dad joined Canadian Western Natural Gas (CWNG) in 1951. Her dad was appointed District Manager for CWNG in Strathmore in November 1960, so the family moved here, which allowed Linda to graduate from Samuel Crowther High School in 1966 and attend Business College in Calgary before working for the County of Wheatland for two years.
Wally and Linda met at high school when Linda was the lifeguard, and they were married in 1968. They lived in Calgary for three years from 1969 to 1971, before moving back to Strathmore to start their family of four children, Sean born in 1971, Trevor born in 1972, and the twins Scott and Theresa born in 1974, and they now have four grandchildren.
In 1992, after leaving town office, Wally and Linda formed Freewest Developments, and built Parklane Place; then, in 1994, they built the Third & Third Mall.
Linda has been very involved throughout her life with cake decorating, and advised she belonged to the Sugar Craft Guild in Calgary. She has been privileged to be in the position to take instruction from three Professional Cake Decorators who visited Calgary from England at different times. Linda and Elisabeth Struiksma created the Strathmore 75th Anniversary Cake in 1986. This cake, measuring three feet by six feet, and weighing 218 pounds, was created in Linda’s kitchen! They had to remove the kitchen window, to move the cake on a specially constructed plywood base to the Old Skating Rink, which was originally located at 4th Ave and 2nd Street, site of the old IGA building!
I was shown icing figurines of 1800’s era ladies in ball gowns, and many other items, all made from icing sugar! She is also an avid sewing machine operator – making many of the family’s clothing, as well as household goods.
Their community activities include the Strathmore Volunteer Fire Dept. for Wally, while Linda is a member of the United Church Quilting Group. They are both interested in curling, both as players and spectators.
The biggest change in and around Strathmore is the move by The Royal Bank, Alberta Treasury Bank, IGA and now Co-op to The Ranch Area close to the highway. This is going to create a huge void downtown.