Alice Patnode, nee Hagen (1912 – 2009)
Alice Patnode was brought up on a farm in Donalda, Alberta.1) She taught school in a number of northern Alberta communities, worked for a while in Calgary, and then found a position near Dawson Creek. She met her husband Larry at a community dance, and they were married a year later in 1941.2)
The Patnodes went to Toronto so Larry could enlist for the Second World War, but he had a heart ailment, so they stayed in Toronto to join the war effort.3) Alice worked in a munitions factory in Toronto and Larry worked for the National Research Council. After the war, they moved to Doe River, Alberta and took up a homestead but Alice had to keep teaching to keep their 200 pigs fed. In 1953, Larry went north and found a job in Whitehorse with the Canadian Army as a driver mechanic. Alice remained in Alberta to finish the teaching year and arrived in Whitehorse in July 1954. At that time, the town had no lawns, sewers or water, or paved roads.4)
Alice worked most of her northern life at Whitehorse Elementary where she taught grade 2. She was a charter member of the Yukon Teacher’s Association and the Women’s Retired Teacher’s Alumni. Alice began pursuing art in 1967 and was one of the original founders of the Yukon Arts Society. She became the society’s first president in April 1970. She was the backbone of the association for many, many years. She painted murals [with her son Bruce?] on the Transportation Museum, the RCMP building for their 110th anniversary, and for the Wildlife Museum at Frontierland in Carcross. She received numerous awards for her paintings and two of them were accepted in the Yukon Permanent Collection in 1992. Her son Bruce, whose sculptures can be found around the Yukon, died of a brain aneurysm in 2007. Her husband Larry died in 1987. She was survived by her daughter, a brother, a grandson and five great-grandchildren.5)