| Iola and Clarke had nine children - four boys and five girls. During their school years, Iola helped with their different activities. For three years she was involved with the local Four-H Club. She was a member of the Charleswood United Church and was president of the United Church Woman's group. Iola taught Sunday School and helped raise the money that built the church on Roblyn Boulevard in Charleswood, Manitoba. In 1952, she joined Rebekah Lodge #52 and was secretary/treasurer for four years. Iola later became Noble Grand and after her term was completed she became District President of three other lodges in Transcona, St. James and Winnipeg. After her husbands retirement from Winnipeg Transit, where Clarke drove bus for many years, they retired to the milder climate of British Columbia. Clarke was killed in a car accident in September of 1971. Iola returned to live in British Columbia but travelled from coast to coast visiting her large, widespread family. She loved to boast that she had a bedroom in nearly "every Province of Canada" and really - she did! The most vivid recollection Iola had of an important invention or development in her life was that of the radio. The first one she remembered seeing belonged to a neighbour. It had huge earphones you had to wear in order to hear anything and most of that turned out to be just squeaks and queer noises! The most significant develoment in her lifetime was the television set and the telephone. Loss of hearing in her life made listening to either very difficult but she continued to do beautiful crochet handiwork! The invention that was to make the biggest change in her life was the refrigerator. Before this they had to buy ice from the ice man or ice house. Ice was retrieved from the Assiniboine River and stored in sawdust to keep it from melting away in the long, hot prairie months. It amazed her that something had been invented that actually made ice in your very own home! Iola's best advice to us all was "live and let live." She passed away on February 25, 2000 in the Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster, British Columbia. Iola was surrounded by members of her loving family. In July of that year her youngest daughter took her ashes to Manitoba and Iola was again at the side of her beloved husband, Clarke in the Garden of the Good Shepherd in Winnipeg. Some of her ashes were also spread in British Columbia and Nova Scotia - coast to coast as she had lived her life. |
Family of Clarke and Iola Winters Charleswood, Manitoba, Canada 1948 |
Iola Victoria May Prout Born May 24, 1907 |
Iola and her father John Prout New Years Eve 1963 |
Iola Prout and Clarke Winters Married October 6, 1928 |
| I remember, I remember How my childhood fleeted by - The month of December And the warmth of its July. ~ Winthrop Mackworth Praed ~ |
| Page Nine |
| Iola Victoria May Prout Married Clarke Winters Iola was the second eldest child of ten born to John Prout and Eva Edna Miller. Born at home in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba she weighed eight pounds two ounces and had brown hair and brown eyes. Iola started school at six years of age and enjoyed spelling and reading. She loved to play ball, took part in church activities and school plays. Her post secondary education turned out to be her own life experience as she quit school in grade eight - something she regretted all of her life. School was always difficult for Iola because every year she, along with her siblings started several weeks late. They had to help bring in the potatoes and vegetable harvested on the farm before the first Manitoba frost. The late start in the school year put her behind the other children and made it very difficult for her to concentrate. A great deal of Iola's time was also taken up helping her mother with the large family as she was the oldest daughter. |
| The area she grew up in was situated between the Assinaboine river and Lake Manitoba. Every year it flooded in the spring making life on the Prairies very scary at times! When Iola was very young she had vivid memorie of one of the homes the family living in burning to the ground. This Prout family lost everything they owned. Learning to cook when she was ten years old, her favourite Aunt Lizzie was her teacher. Iola left home at the age of sixteen and kept house for her Aunt Mable Cuddy in Sanford, Manitoba. When she was eighteen, she moved to the big city of Winnipeg and got a job at the candy counter with the Hudson Bay Store. On May 21st., 1927, she was invited over for dinner at her cousin Margaret Glennie's house. That night she met her future husband, Nathaniel Clarke Wallace Moodie Winters, son of John Wesley Winters and Annie McLean of Poplar Point. Clarke was born on May 24, 1904 in Strathclair, Manitoba - but that is another story in the making! Clarke and Iola were married on October 6, 1928 in the Carlton Street Ministers Manse in Winnipeg. Margaret ad Jack Glennie were their witnesses and after the wedding they drove to Poplar Point for a dance to celebrate. They spent their honeymoon night with friends Gus and Jessie Cameron. |
Iola and Clarke 1970 |
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