Amanda Rendell, nee Burian (b.1919)
Amanda Rendell arrived in the Yukon in 1937 from New Westminster, British Columbia where her monthly pay was $15. She came up on the White Pass train to work at the Regina Hotel for the season at $60 a month. In the fall, she moved to Dawson where Yukon Consolidated Gold Corp (YCGC) was paying good money and there was a lively social life. She took a job in a restaurant and lived at the Yukonia Hotel where Victoria Faulkner was also a resident. She met Dawson-born Charlie Rendell, an engineer with YCGC, and they married in 1940 at St. Paul’s church. Both enjoyed singing in the choir and he played the banjo at entertainments. They shared their love of nature and boating. They had two children, Pam Charman and Bill.1)
During the Second World War the paddlewheelers passed through Dawson starting in 1939 on their way to Circle, Alaska. The capitol moved to Whitehorse in the early 1950s and the riverboats stopped running with the construction of the Klondike Highway. YCGC was slowing closing down and the couple reluctantly oved to Whitehorse in 1962. Charlie got a job at the territorial liquor corporation and then the Department of Corrections. He died in 1996.2)
Amanda was the unofficial grandmother of the Riverdale Skate Park and encouraged the kids to keep the place clean. She got into the habit of picking up cans and bottles when her dog cut his paw and she sent the money to Plan International. The kids held a BBQ in her honour on her 90th birthday. She was an enthusiastic walker and carried matches, fruit, snacks and a thermos on her walks. She preferred the hinterland in the summer but stayed on the roads in the winter. She and Jan Tulloch brought music to Macaulay Lodge and the special care unit at Copper Ridge Place for years with their weekly sing-along.3)