Ask most St. Albert residents of a certain age who taught them to drive, and many will have the same answer: Yvonne Bull, the founder of Northern Lights Driving School.
Former St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan guessed that maybe 80 per cent of St. Albert residents who learned to drive in the 1980s and 1990s — himself included — had Bull as a driving instructor. He said Bull was a remarkable person who raised four children, started her own business, and supported many community organizations, all as a single mother.
“The superheroes who live among us are the single mothers, and Yvonne in every way was a superhero,” Khan said.
Khan was one of about 150 people who were at the St. Albert Curling Club Nov. 9 to celebrate Bull’s life.
Yvonne Florence Lund Bull died in her sleep in her Mission Ave. home on Oct. 31. She was 86.
Barbara May, Bull’s eldest daughter, said Bull had been active right up until her final days, having attended a birthday party for one of her grandchildren five days before she died.
“It was really awesome to be able to see her in her element with her great-grandchildren,” May said.
Accordions and turn-signals
Born in 1938 in Bonnyville, Bull was the youngest of four children and spent most of her childhood in Edmonton, May said. She grew up in a musical family, with her father on the saxophone, her mother on the piano, and herself on the accordion.
Bull settled in St. Albert in 1960 and raised four children as a single mother following a divorce. While she spent most of her life on Mission Avenue, May said the family initially lived in a house where the traffic circle by St. Albert Place stands today. There was no St. Albert Place, Grandin Medical Clinic, or provincial courthouse back then, and there was a steel bridge over the Sturgeon River on Perron Street.
Khan said he was friends with one of Bull’s four kids in the 1970s and spent many a day hanging out at their place.
“She was always fun, always had a smile on her face,” he recalled, and took great care of him while he was growing up.
“If I needed a kick in the pants, I knew Mrs. Bull wouldn’t be shy about putting me in my place.”
May said Bull was an expert seamstress, sewing all her children’s clothes and practising crochet and petit point (a type of canvas embroidery). She would also often sing and dance around the house while playing the accordion, which she kept in an old blue trunk.
May said Bull worked for many years as a driving instructor for St. Albert Driver Training. In 1980, she struck out on her own by starting Northern Lights Driver Training — a remarkable feat, given that the early 1980s was a time when a woman usually couldn’t get a business loan without a husband to co-sign for it.
Linda Waters said she worked with Bull for decades as an instructor with Northern Lights. The company started as a one-car operation based out of Bull’s home, but soon grew to four cars and a dozen instructors, gaining a reputation for excellence in the region.
“She was an excellent instructor,” said Waters, so much so that she believes Northern Lights is still getting students today based on Bull’s reputation.
“Her number one priority was to put out safe students onto the road.”
Civic-minded traveller
Khan said Bull had a keen interest in local politics and was an active supporter of many St. Albert leaders, including the late MP John Williams.
Gazette columnist Charles Schroder said Bull was a longtime member of the St. Albert Rotary Club and led the International Youth Exchange and the Rotary Music Festival for many years. Rotary International once gave her an award for her efforts.
“Whatever she did, she put her all into it,” Schroder said.
In an email, former St. Albert mayor Nolan Crouse said Bull was a pivotal member of the St. Albert 50 Plus Club, serving as its historian and playing a large role in the construction of its current home.
“One may argue that without Yvonne, the building would not be standing today or be as modern as it is,” he said.
Yvonne was named the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Owner of the Year in 1995 in recognition for her community service.
Bull was an avid traveller, and guests at the Nov. 9 event got to look at some of her many, many photo albums from her trips to basically every continent on Earth.
“She was very adventurous,” May said.
May said she would most remember Bull as “Grandma Yvonne” because of how close she was to her many grandchildren.
Bull is survived by her four children (Barbara, Gordon, Ronald, and Susan), six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation or the Rotary District 5370 Charitable Foundation.
