Muriel Mary Jane Needham (1916 – 2006)
Muriel Needham was born in Vancouver. She attended business college and was an active field hockey player. In 1942, she started work for Canadian Pacific Airlines in the reservations department and occasionally flew as a spotter on the search and rescue planes. She transferred to Whitehorse in 1944 and met and married John W. Needham, a local merchant.1)
Jack and Murial Needham bought the [Kee Bird] Novelty Shop in Whitehorse in 1954/55. A small building next to the store was owned by Ted Pinchin and later on Nellie Grant who had children's’ wear on one side and and a taxi office on the other. Next to that was the Pinchin Bakery, a two-story building with a two-bedroom apartment above when the family lived. The Needhams later bought the Pinchin Building and they moved into the apartment. Meanwhile Bill Stacer had the Main Street Pharmacy in the little store and the Needhams bought that as well and opened a ladies’ wear store until Rose [?] had to move there when the Capitol Hotel expanded.2)
The Needhams operated the Kee Bird store until the late 1960s when they retired to Kelowna. Muriel and Jack Needham were life members of the Yukon Pioneers Association and the Yukon Order of Pioneers in Kelowna.3)