Madge Emily Gillespie, nee Caley (1929 - 2000)

Madge Gillespie was born in Dawson to parents Fred and Dorothy (Skistad) Caley. She had two brothers and two sisters. As a youth, Madge spent her summers with her grandparents, Nils and Alice Skistad. She worked at their Arlington Road House on Hunker Creek waiting tables and cleaning rooms. She also waitressed at the F&F Café, the current Westminster Hotel tavern. She and her sister ran a grocery and magazine store in the old E.O. Ellington Hardware building. She got her driver’s licence and helped her father deliver groceries. Madge left school in her twelfth year to work at her parents’ general store and stayed working there until her father closed the store in October 1978. The first store was located at the south end of town, near the power house, until October 1947 when it moved to 3rd Avenue. Madge and Richard Dawson “Dick” Gillespie were married in 1952. Dick was a local miner and contractor. They had one son, Rick. Dick passed away in May 1993.¹⁾