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Lily “Penny” Sippel, nee Collins (b. 1940)
Penny Sippel was born in Vancouver when her mother travelled from Stewart Island to her parents' home in the south to give birth to her second child. Penny's mother's family, the Burians, had a strong connection to Stewart Island and the Stewart River after Alfred Burian first located in the area and was joined by brothers Renny, Karl, Rudy, and Walter during the depth of the Depression. Martha Burian joined her brothers at Stewart Island in 1936 and she and brother Rudy bought the Stewart Island Roadhouse. Penny's parents, Martha and Phil Collins, were married in 1937 and they took over running the roadhouse.1) Phil was a longshoreman for the British Yukon Navigation Co., a subsidiary of White Pass & Yukon Route. Martha ran the roadhouse, offering rooms and meals. Both of her parents ran traplines in the winter.2)
Penny's family moved to Dawson when Penny was two years old but she remembers visits to the island, berry picking and travelling on the trap line.3) In 1952, the family lived in the Whiskey Flats area of Whitehorse that is Rotary Park today. Phillip worked with the Army, building houses in Camp Takhini. Penny was crowned May Queen in the 1956 precursor to the Sourdough Rendezvous spring festival, May Days. Penny met Don Sippel in 1954 and they were married in 1959. They raised three children: Donna, Cindy, and Paul. Don and Penny Sippel were named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon in 2023.4)