"Dear Betty" -- Letters from Helen Dawe and Betty Youngson, 1973-83

Helen Isabel Dawe, 1914-1983, was born in Vancouver, B.C. She was the daughter of Capt. Samuel Dawe and Ada Dawe, whose parents, Thomas John and Sarah Belle Cook, were among the first Caucasian settlers in Sechelt, taking up permanent residence in 1894. Helen and her younger sister Billie spent most of their childhood summers in Sechelt. Helen attended school in Vancouver and the University of British Columbia as well as the University of Toronto. During WW11 she served as a coder in the Royal Canadian Navy in London, England. On her return to Canada, she worked in the Victoria Legislative Library and was head of acquisitions for the Vancouver Public Library until 1965. She moved to Sechelt and, upon retirement in 1972, was an active Sechelt citizen and volunteer and continued her work of collecting documents, photographs, and artifacts about the history of Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast.