Lillian “Lil” Munroe
Lil and Mac Munroe lived in Dawson for thirty-four years.1) Lil remembers travelling down the Yukon River in July on a paddlewheeler with her two-year-old son. Mac was already in Dawson and the family lived in a log cabin. On Boxing Day, the cupboards fell off the walls, breaking most of the dishes they had been given as a housewarming present. Their friends blamed it on permafrost and the Monroes moved out to another more stable home on New Years Day.2)
The Munroes were charter members of the Dawson City Museum and Historical Society, and Lil started the St. Paul’s Anglican Church Thrift Shop.3) She created the store as a fund raiser for St. Paul's Church. The store building was originally the Old Presbyterian Manse. Tea was served in the living room and the goods were spread out in the dining room. Lil was still caretaker of the shop when Aldene Snider came to Dawson in 1967. Aldene worked with Lil to keep the shop open and organized. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the shop was located in the former Good Samaritan Hospital, located next door to St. Paul's. The two-story hospital was used for services when the church got too cold in the winter.4)
The Thrift Store moved to its current location in 1978 when two buildings were brought to Dawson from Clinton Creek after the mine closed. One was used for the Thrift Store and the other for winter services. They had a wood stove in the middle of the room and someone had to light the store before the store opened. When the Sniders retired in 1998 and moved back to Dawson, Aldene took up her old position with the store, working first with Joyce Caley and then with Karen Farr.5)
Mac and Lil Munroe retired to Surrey, British Columbia but still spent summer months in the Yukon. Their children are son Robert of Mission B.C., and daughters Heather of Mayo, Geraldine of Whitehorse, and Carol of Richmond B.C.6)