UNITY — Jeanne Cumming recently celebrated her 100th birthday. The fourth child and first girl born to Howard and Eileen Maze Oct. 2, 1923, Jeanne grew up in Swarthmore, northeast of Unity.
School was a half-mile walk for Jeanne, not far enough for the family to invest in a horse, cutter and blankets. Pleasant enough in the spring and autumn months and on milder winter days, the walk in bitter winter weather was another story. Growing up well before the advent of snowsuits, and at a time when little girls wore dresses to school every day, walking to school in the early winter mornings was downright unpleasant.
Jeanne remembers one especially cold day when a good Samaritan helped her out. Kenny Ireland’s father worked on a neighbouring farm and came along on horseback on his way to work. “He stopped, picked me up, turned around and took me to school. It was great,” said Jeanne, remembering the incident with gratitude, even decades later.
After school, Jeanne helped with supper and reminisces about “Mom’s easy supper” on Friday nights – a pot of white beans. “We loved that on bread,” she says.
Jeanne remembers doing “lots of dishes,” no surprise in a family with eight children in all and at a time when automatic dishwashers had yet to be invented. At the age of six, she was too small to reach the sink and counter properly so would stand on a little chair, part of a child’s table and chair set she had received from her grandmother for her fifth birthday.
She remembers standing on that chair, drying dishes as her dad washed them, when an aunt arrived. “Oh my goodness! That plate’s as big as you are!” remarked her aunt upon spying the little girl upon the chair with her dishtowel and plate in hand.
Swarthmore School had a softball team and Jeanne was an avid player. There were four schools near to one another – Swarthmore, Weewana, Langmark and Happyland and each had a softball team who would take turns competing against each other.
Her love of ball has lasted throughout the years and as an adult she became a Blue Jays fan. Baseball games on TV were one of her favourite things to watch. While failing eyesight means she can no longer really see what is happening on the diamond, she still turns the game on so she can listen to the play-by-play.
Jeanne attended high school in Wilkie, boarding with family friends during the week. The day after finishing high school, she went to join a girlfriend living in Edmonton. In Edmonton, she trained as a hairdresser.
Meanwhile, future husband Ray spotted Jeanne’s sister Claire at a dance in Wilkie one night. He asked for Jeanne’s address and wrote her a letter. Ray was three years older than Jeanne, but the pair had known each other almost all their lives, living in the same area and attending the same school.
Not long after receiving Ray’s letter, Jeanne moved to Wilkie, purchasing the hairdressing shop there when the former hairdresser retired. A little over a year later, on Nov. 14, 1945, Ray and Jeanne were married.
Instead of going to Battleford for their wedding night, they went to visit Ray’s mother who was very ill in hospital. Sadly, Sarah Cumming died only a couple of months later.
Ray took over his parents’ family farm and, like all farm wives, Jeanne helped out wherever and whenever needed, including driving the tractor at harvest time. The couple raised five children –Diane, Dale, Don, Sharon and Vaughn – on the farm. Earlier this year, Sharon passed away to Jeanne’s great sorrow.
As well as helping out on the farm and raising children, Jeanne volunteered in the community. She was a founding member of both the Unity Royal Purple and the Unity Hospital Auxiliary. She was also active with the United Church, first in Swarthmore and then in Unity.
Ray and Jeanne hosted many farm trainees from overseas. The trainees became like members of the family and, in later years, the Cummings enjoyed visiting them, travelling to places such as England, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. The close connections forged with trainees was well demonstrated when they even visited the mother, living in England, of a trainee from New Zealand.
Earlier travels as a family with children in tow included a week at Cochin every summer and a trip to California in 1959.
In later years, Ray and Jeanne returned to Palm Springs every winter for well over 30 years, driving their own vehicle each time. While there, they started working at golf tournaments, such as the annual Bob Hope Desert Classic. As a result they met many celebrities.
Jeanne remembers the people working in the VIP tent and elsewhere “were pretty near all Canadians. It was quite an honour for us, but” – explaining why they were consistently invited back – “we were good workers.” She said often Raymond was behind the counter serving up frozen yogurt while she and her youngest sister, Ethel Brown from Cut Knife, looked after the salad bar.
Jeanne was an astute money manager. She remembers when she and Ray had a grand total of $70 in the bank. She took out $20 and invested it. The whole family remembers the times she would buy herself something and Ray would exclaim, “I don’t know where she got the money for that!”
She also helped the children get a good start, saving their 4-H money for them and then surprising them with a small nest egg when they were ready to venture out into the world.
Reflecting back on her life, Jeanne is most proud of her children, although she does regret not having given Donny music lessons. Looking at the world in general, she thinks schools have much improved over the course of her lifetime.
Jeanne’s 100th birthday in October was marked with some 70 guests attending a come-and-go tea at Luther Place, followed by a family supper.
Ray passed away in March of 2016 but Jeanne still lives in her suite at Luther Place. She described Luther Place as “the best place in the world,” and loved playing cards with other residents in the common room until her eyesight became so poor. Daughter Dianne is staying with her to help out until a place in long term care opens up.
Jeanne’s family today includes nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
