Correction
The print version of this story referred to Mrs. Atkinson as "Susan" based on incorrect information from the Lacombe Museum. Historian Graeme Matichuk says Atkinson was baptized as Susie and was quite particular about not being called Susan.
The print version also said that Atkinson was charged $1,000 for her hospital stay instead of $10. Matichuk said he misspoke; the fee was $10/day for rural and $1/day for urban, and Atkinson's efforts reduced rural hospital fees to $1/day. The $1,000 referred to a separate hospital stay by her husband. The Gazette apologizes for these errors and has updated this version of the story with the correct information.
What’s in a Name?
The Gazette is looking at the history behind the names of places in St. Albert in light of the city’s move to rename the Grandin neighbourhood. Curious about a place’s name? Send it in to [email protected] so it can be examined in a future story.
Regulars at the St. Albert Public Library might have come across a photo of a woman captioned “Mrs. Ted Atkinson” hanging outside library CEO Peter Bailey’s office.
That’s Susie Emma Atkinson, a legendary figure among library staff, Bailey said. In the late 1930s, Atkinson started St. Albert’s first public library, hauling crates of books from the University of Alberta to town in her little Essex car to loan to area residents.
“Libraries have changed a lot since the late ‘30s,” Bailey said, but staff today still joke about what “Mrs. Ted” would think about today’s issues.
Atkinson is the namesake of Atkinson Place in St. Albert.
To Graeme Matichuk, historian and president of the Friends of St. Albert Public Library, Atkinson was “the woman of many, many firsts,” including the first librarian in St. Albert, the first female county councillor in Alberta, and the first woman in the Olds College Hall of Fame.
“She was a champion of anything that would do good in her community,” Matichuk said.
Leader and reader
Born Susie Wright in 1899, Atkinson came to the Lakeside region near Lacombe with her family in 1909, Matichuk said. Her mother died when she was 16, so she had to help her father raise her four younger siblings.
“She talked a little bit in an interview with the [Musée Héritage Museum] in 1979 about how she was an avid reader back in those days,” Matichuk said.
“She said she read every book in the library. She couldn’t get enough of books.”
After earning her agriculture degree from Olds College, Atkinson came to St. Albert in 1937 to care for the twin girls of Edwin “Ted” Atkinson, whose wife had died earlier that year, Matichuk and the Musée Héritage’s archives report. Within a month, Edwin and Susie had married. They worked together to raise their kids and farm what is now the Holy Cross Cemetery on St. Albert Trail.
Atkinson got involved with politics soon after the birth of her son in 1937 in Edmonton, Matichuk said. Policy at the time meant hospitals charged rural residents more for treatment than urban ones, which saddled Atkinson with a $10/day bill instead of a $1/day one. Atkinson felt this policy was unfair and rallied area leaders to change it, resulting in lower medical fees for rural patients.
Atkinson was a Protestant at a time when St. Albert was very Catholic, Matichuk said. She helped start a Sunday school program in this region in 1937. She and other members of this program went on to volunteer for the Red Cross, revive the St. Albert Women’s Institute and form the St. Albert United Church.
Atkinson’s passion for reading led her to start St. Albert’s first library in around 1938. She would borrow apple boxes full of books through the U of A’s travelling library program and distribute them at community meetings. Matichuk said this would have been transformative for St. Albert — few communities had libraries in those years, and most kids got maybe one new book a year.
In 1946, Atkinson rallied members of the Women’s Institute to establish a permanent St. Albert library, Black Robe’s Vision reports. The library would move between various temporary locations in the next few decades before the first standalone library building was built in 1967.
“Through the devoted and persistent work of the Women’s Institute, the library had progressed from a few books in apple boxes to a fine, regular service,” Black Robe’s Vision says.
Lacombe legacy
After Edwin died, Atkinson moved back to Lacombe in 1956 to raise her kids and award-winning cattle. In 1961, she won a seat on the Lacombe County council, becoming the first woman elected to a rural municipal council in Alberta. Matichuk said Atkinson’s council peers spoke highly of her, with one reeve saying there was no chance of anyone slacking off on a committee when she was around.
Atkinson was the first chair of the Lacombe Nursing Home and spearheaded the creation of the Kozy Korner Community Centre in the late 1960s, the Lacombe Museum reports. She was admitted to the Olds College Hall of Fame on June 25, 1971, and died in 1991.
Bailey said Atkinson was one of many strong women in the history of the St. Albert Library. Just as they were back in Atkinson’s days, today’s libraries are all about learning and building community.
“We’ll always need strong advocates like Suzie Atkinson was to tell people about the good word of libraries.”
