Florence Roberts (1944-2017)
Florence Roberts was born in New Westminster, British Columbia. She graduated from nursing school, specializing in psychiatric nursing. She and husband Preston were living in Mission, British Columbia when they visited the Yukon in 1972. They moved north in 1973 with baby Lloyd, and Jenny was born the next year. Florence worked hard to have Yukon recognise psychiatric nurses and the Registered Psychiatric Nurses Regulation was incorporated into Yukon’s Health Professions Act in 2009. Jenny and Preston worked claims on Burwash Creek and at Mount Nansen. Florence met Alfred Gould and they spent time together, over twenty-eight years. She worked a few years at the Royal Bank and then worked for Health Canada and then Yukon Health and Social Services.1)
Florence Roberts was on the Whitehorse housing advisory board, the utilities board, the board for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and more. She was a founding member on the board of the Yukoners Cancer Care Fund when it was created in early 2012 to help people cover out-of-pocket expenses. She volunteered with the Red Cross health equipment loan program. She was first elected to Whitehorse City Council in 2006 and was re-elected in 2009 and she worked hard to improve the city's transit system. During her tenure all of the buses were replaced with ones that kneel for people with mobility issues.2)