Remembering our roots ~ Ken and Judy Sauve

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

The Sauve family has been traced back to France and the first Sauve, a soldier, arrived in Lachine, Que. in approximately 1663. The family eventu-ally moved to Gentilly, Minn., where Ken’s grandfather owned a hardware store.
Ken’s father, Achille, arrived in the Gleichen area in 1920 to visit his sister, Del Menard, and to assist in the building of a house for her and her family. He decided to stay, and did carpentry work in the area until 1931, when he purchased land and operated a mixed farm. That year he married Myrtle Cunningham, who had moved to Gleichen from Minnesota with her family in 1918. They had five sons, of which Ken Sauve was the last one, born in 1944. They lived on the farm through 1965, when they moved into Gleichen.
Ken attended school in Gleichen from Grades 1-8, then moved to Cluny for Grades 9-11, before attending Olds Agricultural College for two years. He then returned to farm Tareyton Farms with his brother Harvey after their dad retired in 1963.
Ken and Judy met while he was attending Olds College. Judy’s sister Mary Ann was a fellow student at Olds, and introduced them.
They were married in 1965, and raised three sons: Todd Joseph, born in 1966, Michael James, born in 1968, and Jason Kenneth, born in 1971.
Ken and Harvey operated a mixed farm with purebred Herefords until 1981 when they decided to divide the land and cattle. Ken’s portion became “Ken and Judy Sauve Herefords” where they grain farmed and raised registered Horned Hereford’s.
Judy’s father, Joseph Cummins, was born in Ireland in 1901, and came to Alberta in 1918. Her mother, Janet Cameron, was born in Scotland and moved to Canada in 1926. Judy grew up on a farm west of Carstairs, and was raised along with her siblings by her Uncle Roy and Aunt Anna Cam-eron. She attended a one-room school called “Banner,” which was west of Carstairs, until Grade 6, then completed her schooling in Carstairs. Follow-ing her graduation at Grade 12, she was employed at the main branch of the Royal Bank of Canada in Calgary until she married Ken in 1965.
Through the years, Ken and Judy have been very involved in their commu-nity, as most farm families are. Ken’s activities have included coaching hockey and baseball, being a charter member of The Gleichen Lions Club, chairman of the Bow North Gas Co-Op, director of Wheatland Surface Rights Group, director of Crowfoot Creek Watershed Group, president of the Central Alberta Hockey League for two years, and councillor for Wheat-land County for nine years. Judy helped set up the Gleichen Library, served as secretary on the arena board, was a member of the Gleichen Communi-ties in Bloom board, and was a member of the committee that created the new history of Gleichen and Cluny, published in 2014 as the book “Memo-ries Recalled.” After their sons were older she worked at a dental office, and took training which permitted her to work at Strathmore Hospital for nine years.
“It has been a very busy time in all of our lives, with school sports, hockey, baseball and 4-H, and we made many lifelong friends through our participa-tion,” said Judy.
Son Todd married Lisa Clark in 2002, and they now have two wonderful children, CJ and Duncan, and they live and work in Calgary. Son Mike has a daughter Ashley, who lives in Calgary, but frequently visits her father on the farm. Mike and Ashley have a small herd of cows, and Mike manages the haying operation. Son Jason married Leanne Brown in 1999, and they have three great children: Ann, Jack and Elle, who all live in Strathmore.
Ken and Judy feel their lives are indeed blessed, as they get to spend very happy times with all their children and grandchildren.
Some of the biggest changes they’ve seen in this area over the past 50 years is the decline of small towns and villages. Many places have com-pletely disappeared, with not even a marker showing where they had once stood.
The new technology available in agriculture with GPS-guided equipment and computers, is truly amazing, they noted.