The Douglas Day planning committee is really good at keeping secrets. That’s how the members were able to surprise one of their own and a woman who has been a community booster for years.
Alice Johnson was surprised at the annual Douglas Day Pioneer Banquet on Tuesday by being given the Freedom of the Township, a unique honour only bestowed to a handful of other local residents.
“This designation is the highest civic tribute that can be bestowed by the Township of Langley in recognition of an individual’s outstanding community contribution,” said Township Mayor Jack Froese. “It isn’t often that we make someone a Freeman – or Freewoman – of the Municipality, but Alice Johnson is a remarkably dedicated, caring person who has given so much over the decades. She is truly deserving of this honour.”
Even though she is part of the group that plans the pioneer banquet for more than 400 people who attend, she didn’t know about the Township surprise that was planned. To bestow freedom of the municipality, all of council must vote in favour.
“I had no idea,” she said of being named a Freewoman of the Township.
She now lives with her brother in Fort Langley but spent many, many years living in Willoughby near the current site of the Langley Events Centre.
Born in New West, the 86-year-old who overcame colon cancer recently, has been involved in the community for years.
She has served on the Douglas Day Committee for over a decade, and with the Willoughby Community Hall and the Willoughby School Committees since the 1990s. Johnson was instrumental in preserving both heritage buildings, which remain thriving community centres that are still enjoyed today.
More than 25 years ago, she started the Willoughby Women’s Community Institute, to better homes and families in the community and around the world. Johnson has also served with the Township’s Heritage Advisory Committee, Langley Heritage Society, and the Langley Centennial Museum History Group, and been Queen Mother on May Day. She has earned the Township of Langley’s Eric Flowerdew Volunteer Award and was presented with the Rotary Club of Langley Central’s Women of Distinction Award.
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Home is where the heart is
The banquet theme this year was homes, with the spotlight on heritage homes that have been preserved by the Langley Heritage Society or the current owners. One of those homes belonged to the ancestors of Alex Dickson.
Dickson has lived in Langley most of his life and is one of the more than 200 people who qualify as pioneers (be at least 70 years of age and lived in Langley at least 60 years).
He came from a family of four kids and worked in the forestry industry for years as a millwright.
He married Lois Schiller (her mother had a cafe in Fort Langley) back in 1962, right after she completed school.
He and his wife had four children, three girls and one boy, and they now have seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“Our Christmas table is getting smaller every year,” he joked.
He went to school in Fort Langley and high school at Langley Secondary. They’ve lived in various neighbourhoods, starting out their married life in a little house near Porter’s Store in Murrayville.
In his many years in Langley, he’s seen tremendous growth.
“The amount of traffic in Langley is outrageous,” he noted.
“Homes, single dwelling homes… our children can’t afford them. Every time I look around there’s a new apartment going up,” he said.
Homes have special memories for the 78-year-old.
Dickson was born in the 1940s-era family home near the Alex Houston home.
His grandfather was Alex Houston whose property at about 107th Avenue and Allard Crescent is one of the heritage houses spotlighted at the banquet and preserved in the community. The house building around 1912 stands on the site of the original Hudson’s Bay Fort at Derby Reach.
Dickson has fond memories of the house and visits with his grandmother.
“We used to go down there and watch wrestling.… We spent Saturday night watching wrestling,” he chuckled.
But with a proud history came a dark cloud, the denial of First Nations ancestry. Dickson’s great grandmother was First Nations.
“My parents didn’t believe that we should be connected with them,” he said, because of negative views of First Nations in generations past. “…It [being First Nations] was kind of frowned upon in the neighbourhood. But that’s changed now.”
It wasn’t until he was in his eighties that Dickson opened his life of to that side of his heritage.
“I’m a native son, and I’m an elder with the Kwantlen,” he said. “We just joined the Kwantlen family about five or six years ago.”
Pioneers celebrated at the 2019 Douglas Day event were:
Charlie and Lorraine Allen
Benny and Penny Anderlini
Albert and Dorothy Anderson
Gezina Anderson
Muriel Anderson
Harvey and Dianne Antonsen
Carol Armstrong
Roxy Bakker
Dale and Heather Barclay
June Barichello
David and Lynda Beales
Roger Beaulieu
Elsie Beggs
Duane Benson
Bill Berry
William Betts
Sharon Bird
Sven Bjorknas
John and Sonya Blair
Italo and Jackie Bonetti
Bruce and Karen Brandow
Frank and Chrissie Braun
Marie Breier
Jim and Margaret Brezden
Roy Briscoe
Barrie and Beverley Brown
Jim and DeEtte Bryce
Fred Burgmann
Myrtle “Walli” Burnell
Gary and Sharon Cameron
Norma Carruthers
Allan Cartwright
Wilfred and Jeanette Cartwright
Bill and Hazel Casey
Betty-Lou Chell
Barbara Chiste
Carl and Lynda Christensen
Lenore Christensen
Lucy Christianson
Terrence and Judy Christie
Irma Cockett
Mary Ann Corfe
Barbara Cornies
Fred and Diane Cudlipp
Lorne Dance
Jean Davis
Bette Dawe
Rodney and Ada Deans
George DeGianni
Alfred and Eleanor Deglan
Wilma Denbraber
Daroyl and Evi Dent
Alex and Lois Dickson
Velmai Dirks
Evelyn Dornan
Leland and Wanda Dornian
Helmut and Karyn Dyck
Jim and Margo Dyck
William and Blanche Dyck
Joy Easingwood
Richard and Lois Edwards
Roy English
Judy Evans
Marilyn Farquhar
Dave and Elsa Faulkner
Dorothy Ferguson
Joe and Florence Fifer
Mary Foote
Keith and Janet Foss
Marvin and Brenda Foss
Patricia Frederick
Bernard Froebel
Hilda Frosdorf
Rosemary Genberg
Bruno and Shirley Giacomazzi
Roy Giacomazzi
Jake and Helen Giesbrecht
Jarnail Gill
June Goin
Glen and Marlene Goldsack
Mary Gooden
Victor Gorcak
Ethel Graham
Betty Granholm
Bruce and Nicole Granholm
Alan and Jean Gregson
Bob Griffiths
Wilfred and Barbara Haid
Paul and Joyce Hamilton
Hazel Harrower
Jackie Hauser
Cora Hayward
Verna Hickey
Gordon and Joan Hill
Cornelius and Joan Hoogenboom
Jean Hope
Terry Horne
Dorothy Humberstone
Robert Humphrey
Wayne and Margaret Humphrey
Charlie Iberg
Alice Johnson
Brian Johnson
Eldon and Sandra Johnston
Gary and Trudy Johnston
Gladys Johnston
Rodney and Dorothy Johnston
Carel Jongs
Eugene and Shirley Kaetler
Morris and Dianne Kelder
John Kelly
Alice Kennedy
Wayne and Shirley Kennedy
Dan and Jan Kitsul
John and Joyce Klassen
Pauline Koch
Edward Kosciuk
Helmut and Shirley Kramer
Joseph and Loretta Krentz
Barry and Marilyn Kristoff
Skuntla Lal
Gerald and Anna Larsen
Marj Lee
Gail Leslie
Kay Lindquist
Hazel Lindstrom
John and Donna Linke
Arlene Locke
George Lockerby
Diane Logan
Percy and Kay Lotzer
Stuart and Marnie Loutet
Albert and Elsie Lundin
Gail Lynch
Larry and Arlene Lynch
Linda Lynch
Victor and Sheila MacDonald
Rod MacKenzie
Jean Makela
Wayne and Lynda Markel
Elsie Martin
John Masztalar
Roy and Vicky Matts
Joan Mayo
Ted and Marylee McCallum
Reid and Jenny McDonald
Wayne and Angelika McDougall
Jim McGregor
Robert and Donna McMillan
Tina McMillan
Donna McTaggart
Helen McTaggart
Robert Meek
Genny Milligan
Lucille Minnis
Phillip Miskulin
Margaret Mitcham
Mary Mitchell
Diane Moffat
Doug and June Moore
Beryl Moore
Fay Morelli
Vernon and Merrilyn Morelli
Margaret Mountain
Claud and Darlene Muench
Pat Muench
Dorothy “Dot” Mufford
Ivan Mufford
Roy and Gerrie Mufford
Penny Mullin
Joyce Murchison
Lurene Music
Arne and Barb Mykle
Ellen Mykle
Ken and Diane Mykle
Alieta Nataros
Bonnie Nelson
Dorothy Newcomb
Tom and Laura Newcomb
Monica Newman
Kathleen Nicholas
David and Jane Nicholl
Fred and Christine Nordman
Robert and Melerly Norman
Mary Olafson
Clarence and Edith Olson
George Omelaniec
Sam and Pam Omelaniec
Brenda Ormond
David and Sheila Ormrod
Betty Oswald
Kathleen Palmer
Fred and Maureen Pepin
Walter and Joan Perry
Aage Petersen
Audrey Pihan
Barry and Eileen Pihan
Bill and Arlene Pike
Patrick and Annemarie Plumridge
Robert and Sharon Poole
Winnie Price
Mary Probert
David and Doreen Radtke
Jerry Radtke
Arlen and Marilyn Randen
Molly Reding
Dick Rees
Don and Lorraine Reimer
Harvey Remple
Bertha Renvall
John and Doris Riedweg
John and Leslie Ritchie
Marilyn Rockson
Alberta Romegioli
Jim and Dawn Ryan
Ron and Edna Sawatsky
Wilfried Schnabel and Gertrud Wagner
David Seller
Diana Sendall
Gail Shields
Marjorie Shiell
Eric and Annemarie Sigalet
Mike and Betty Skwarok
Alfie Smaback
Jean Smith
George and Janet Southam
Al and Betty Stark
Wilma Stromsten
Doris Stroyan
Allen and Gwen Sturn
Gerald Tapp
Robert and Joan Tapp
Al and Marilyn Tecklenborg
Bryan and Joyce Trattle
Toots Tucker
Mary Twemlow
Barry and Susan Vaughan
Ernest Vaughan
Harold and Joanne Vaughan
Laverne Vaughan
Brenda Wagner
Peter Walton
Joy Warne
Garry and Linda Warner
Jill Wautier
Sharon Weatherly
Marie Wenman
Wayne and Betty Westby
Ray Wiens
Doreen Willushaw
Grace Wilson
Jim Winter and Nancy Ash
Lilian Witt
Ellen Worrell
Shirley Worrell
Joe Wrazy
Joe and Jeanette Wright
Willie Wright and Diane Hanson
Don Wrightman
Ron Yates
Shirley Yeomans
Martha Zado
Hazel Zaklan
Frank and Leona Zoretic
