“Keep ’Em Flying” was coined on May 17, 1941 by the U.S. Army’s chief recruiting officer, Lt. Col. Harold N. Gilbert. The simple slogan was an effective, patriotic battle cry introduced by the U.S. War Production Board to inspire WWII aircraft factory workers. [1] The motto was popular and versatile, just what a public relations campaign needed.
A poem by Jack Childs entitled “Keep ’Em Flying” was published on a 1941 poster by artist C.C. Beall issued by the United States Army Recruiting Service. The slogan encouraged recruitment and civilian participation in the war effort. [2]
Keep ’Em Flying
Keep ’em flying— Airplanes—flags— Machines—production— Nothing lags. Put your shoulder To the wheel; Courage staunch With nerves of steel. Greet each day, Or pledge a toast— “Keep ’em flying” Is our boast. Here’s a slogan For us all— An answer to
Our country’s call.
Keep ’em flying; Keep ’em clear. The time is ripe, The time is HERE. To pull together— One bold front— Each one prepared To do his stunt. Workers and The men who hire— Housewives—children— All aspire To help and work With little pause— One mind, one heart, One goal, one cause.
SO—“KEEP ’EM FLYING!”
A typical U.S. Army recruitment poster, 1942. [3]
The slogan was versatile and adaptable, all right. Every citizen was encouraged to support the war effort, even Miss U.S.A.
“Uncle Sam needs stenographers!” Imagine the paperwork a war generates. Poster produced by the Royal Typewriter Company for the U.S. Civil Service Commission. [4]
The “Keep ’Em Flying” message was widely promoted and adopted. It was the title of a half-hour 1943 U.S. Army Air Force job placement film that explained for new recruits the roles and importance of many supporting occupations they might consider. [5]
The slogan was also the title of a 1941 Abbott & Costello movie [6] and a Glenn Miller & His Orchestra foxtrot recorded December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbour [7]. (It works well as a motto for today’s antique aircraft enthusiasts and restorers, too.)
RCAF outfits like No. 6 Repair Depot in Trenton, Ontario were all about keeping 'em flying. Nil nobis irreparabile (“Nothing Beyond Repair For Us”) was their official motto, but a less formal version used by The Sixardee newsletter was “You Bend ’Em, We Mend ’Em”—a snappier slogan akin to “Keep ’Em Flying.”
It was easier said than done, especially for overseas ground crews servicing badly damaged aircraft limping back from their bombing raids. [8]
The slogan worked in Winnipeg, too. It was especially appropriate for MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited, a local firm that truly was keeping ’em flying.
The photo is unclear in this 1942 advertisement in the Winnipeg Free Press, but may have featured Avro Ansons assembled at the MacDonald Bros.’ new plant. [9]
A feature in the two Winnipeg daily papers highlighted the remarkable efforts of MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited to meet wartime production contracts.
This article by Dick Sanburn ran in both Winnipeg dailies on December 29, 1941. [10]
The newspaper article was a glowing public relations piece. However, the best tribute to MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited may have been penned by Sgt. L.R. Silver. The R.C.A.F. bomber navigator praised MacDonald Bros. for keeping ’em flying in a letter to a “fellow worker” there.
Letter to the Winnipeg Tribune, April 22, 1942. [11]
Wartime was a hectic time for a lot of workers. Shifts were running around the clock at companies like MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited. The firm had an enormous new plant at Stevenson Field and was busy meeting defence contracts. This war work was in addition to its long-time contract for the manufacture of Edo floats, which continued apace at their original site on Robinson Street.
The pressure was on in wartime. Building wings and assembling Anson training aircraft, for instance, was a major job. Completed aircraft were thoroughly inspected and each was flown by Roy Brown, the company’s own test pilot. MacDonald Bros. ran its own training school, and its diverse wartime workforce included women, under-age men, over-age cabinet makers, and others unfit for war service.
Building Anson wings at the new Stevenson Field plant.[1]
Other contracts involved the repair, maintenance and overhaul of aircraft of all sorts.
Overhaul division at the Stevenson Field plant. [1]
A 1942 Industrial Development Board of Manitoba profile of MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited was full of praise:
When war broke out and the Commonwealth Air Training Plan developed, MacDonald Bros. became an outstanding cog in the huge war machine. Increased facilities were required. In addition to expanding the original company’s premises, a huge modern industrial plant was put into operation on the raw prairie six months after the first sod was turned.
Over 2,000 employees are now engaged in the company’s operations. Skilled mechanics are employed as far as possible, and others are trained by the various departments. [1]
The publication’s glowing assessment claimed, “They are doing a remarkably good job, and have proven what can be done in Greater Winnipeg through harmonious and aggressive teamwork.”
But for 28-year-old sheet metal worker Stanley Victor, a 12-year employee of MacDonald Brothers, it was aggressive indeed, and not at all harmonious. In fact, it was deadly.
Stanley Victor [2]
The Winnipeg Free Press reported a fight during the midnight shift between two employees at MacDonald Bros. Aircraft Limited’s Stevenson Field plant on Friday, February 27, 1942: “Victor is said to have received a fractured skull when his head struck a work bench after being struck in the scuffle. He never regained consciousness.” [2]
Victor was attended to by the company nurse and rushed to the Winnipeg General Hospital, where he died at 8:30 p.m., Monday, March 2.
Co-worker Edward Burke (later spelled Erwin or Edwin Bourke) of 2 Winston Road, St. James, was “alleged to have had an altercation regarding some tools.” [2] He was not arrested, but was directed to attend an inquest.
The St. James police investigation reported that “during the scrap Victor slipped and fell, striking his head against a work table and becoming unconscious.” [3]
On March 4 the Winnipeg Tribune announced an inquest would be held. [3]
March 6 obituary for Stanley Victor [4]
The inquest presented more details about the fight between Stanley Victor and Edward Burke.
Among the evidence turned over to the attorney general was the assertion that “there had been constant friction between the two men” and that when Victor slipped and fell he might have struck his head on a vice. [5]
Bourke was acquitted on Friday, May 15, 1942:
The court’s decision made the front page of the May 15 Winnipeg Free Press. [6]
The Winnipeg Tribune also announced the acquittal, adding that General Hospital physician Dr. Oliver S. Waugh suggested that “the patient had undergone a skull operation in 1939, which might have left him with a somewhat irritable disposition.” [7]
A witness told of an argument between Bourke and Victor before Bourke walked away: “While Bourke's back was turned Victor aimed a kick at him. Bourke swung around and struck Victor in the face, knocking him to the cement floor.” [7]
Regardless of whether Victor hit his head on his workbench or a vice prior to landing on the cement floor, the result could only be fatal.
Reports do not confirm whether Stanley Victor had indeed taken tools or work that belonged to Bourke. But it’s no wonder that workers had padlocks on their toolboxes.
And if there is a ghost at the plant (now Magellan Aerospace), it is likely the aggrieved Stanley Victor.
Sources
Industrial Development Board of Manitoba, “One of our Roles in the War Picture,” Manitoba Industrial Topics, 1942.
“Aircraft Plant Worker Dies After Fight,” Winnipeg Free Press, March 3, 1942, p. 13
“Inquest Called in Man’s Death,” Winnipeg Tribune, March 4, 1942, p. 8
“Stanley Victor,” Winnipeg Tribune, March 6, 1942, p. 27
“Death Ruled Accidental,” Winnipeg Tribune, March 6, 1942, p. 5
“Bourke Acquitted Of Manslaughter,” Winnipeg Free Press, May 15, p. 1
“Erwin Bourke Wins Acquittal,” Winnipeg Tribune, May 15, p. 13
In the autumn of 1927 eight-year-old Murray Fraser caught a bad cold. He was lethargic, had a sore throat, a mild fever, and chills. But this was no ordinary cold. Soon he felt sicker than he had ever felt in his life. His mother summoned the doctor, who determined that a throat swab was warranted. It would take a few days for a Winnipeg lab to confirm a diagnosis.
Annie Fraser was having none of it, and insisted her boy be given an antitoxin immediately. She was right. It was diphtheria, and the quick action probably saved his life.
Early samples of antitoxin serum for diphtheria [Warner, 2013]
Known to the Greeks in the 4th century B.C., diphtheria is not a new disease. During a 17th century epidemic, the Spanish termed it “The Strangler,” and it appeared in New England in the early 1700s. By 1900 it was one of the leading causes of death for infants and children.
Extremely contagious, diphtheria is airborne, typically spread through person-to-person contact, coughing and sneezing. With a two- to five-day incubation period, it is one of the fastest moving diseases, and its victims die quickly, either from suffocation or the spread of toxin in the bloodstream that can cause heart failure or paralysis. [Ciok, 2000]
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) describes how frightful and horrid diphtheria is:
Early symptoms include malaise, sore throat, anorexia, and low-grade fever (less than 101°F). Within 2 to 3 days, a bluish-white membrane forms and extends, varying in size from covering a small patch on the tonsils to covering most of the soft palate. Often by the time a physician is contacted the membrane is greyish-green or, if bleeding has occurred, black. [...] The membrane is firmly adherent to the tissue, and forcible attempts to remove it cause bleeding. Extensive membrane formation may result in respiratory obstruction.
While some patients may recover at this point without treatment, others may develop severe disease. The patient may appear quite toxic, but the fever is usually not high. Patients with severe disease may develop [...] a characteristic “bull neck” appearance. If enough toxin is absorbed, the patient can develop severe prostration, pallor, rapid pulse, stupor, and coma. Death can occur within 6 to 10 days.
Without an antitoxin, doctors could offer few remedies beyond tracheotomies and intubation to counteract the suffocation. Diphtheria kills 5–10% of sufferers, and up to 20% of those under age five or older than 40. In the U.S. in the 1920s there were between 100,000 and 200,000 cases each year, with 13,000–15,000 deaths. [IAC, n.d.]
In 1924, the worst year for diphtheria in this country [Canada], there were 9,000 cases and 2,000 deaths.
A diphtheria antitoxin had existed since 1894. It was produced in many countries but not in Canada, where it had to be imported from the U.S. at a price so high that one in every three children infected with the disease died.
What Canada needed was a public health laboratory capable of producing and distributing diphtheria antitoxin in the quantities needed, at a price that would be affordable for all. In 1913 this challenge was taken up in Toronto by 31-year-old John Gerald FitzGerald. Driven by his determination, a diphtheria antitoxin would eventually be free and the foundations of vaccine research, development and production would be built in Canada, with consequences that would be felt worldwide. [Longley, 2020]
FitzGerald’s Connaught Antitoxin Laboratory at the University of Toronto was an industry leader. [Rutty, n.d.]
In Canada, campaigns to inform the public and encourage vaccination were numerous. Efforts included short health films to educate moviegoers about the need to get vaccinated against diphtheria and smallpox. A February 16, 1927 article in the Lethbridge Herald explained that “The view commonly held that vaccine is a filthy material taken from the ulcerated sore of a diseased cow was disproved.” The old-time sulphur and molasses treatment for illness would only spread an epidemic.
The Lethbridge Medical Society produced two health films shown with the regular offerings in its movie theatres. [Lethbridge Herald, February 16, 1927, p. 10, emphasis added]
In a 1955 Maclean’s magazine article, June Callwood explained how the diphtheria antitoxin was produced:
Diphtheria is caused by bacteria that settle in the throat and pour out poison, or toxin. To produce diphtheria antitoxin, this poison is injected in minute quantity into the bloodstream of a horse, causing the horse’s body to form substances—known as antibodies—to fight off the invading poison. The next injection contains more toxin, which produces more antibodies in the horse’s blood. Eventually, after about four months of injections, the horse can tolerate without discomfort an injection strong enough to kill a thousand horses; his blood is hyper-immunized. This blood, drawn off in small quantities at regular intervals, is treated to become diphtheria antitoxin. When it is injected into a human suffering from diphtheria it bolsters the victim’s feebly developing antibodies and results in a cure. Antitoxin is used in the treatment of diphtheria; diphtheria toxoid, developed in 1924, is used to prevent the disease. [Callwood, 1955]
“The treatment for diphtheria, developed in the late 19th century, still relies on injecting horses with a toxin and harvesting their antibodies.” [Kupferschmidt, 2020]
If young Murray Fraser had known the contribution horses had made, perhaps he would have had a better opinion of them. Recent efforts are exploring ways to make diphtheria treatment without injecting horses with toxin. [Kupferschmidt, 2020]
Murray was fortunate to have recovered unscathed. His four-year-old cousin Mildred Fraser was not so lucky.
Murray Fraser with his cousin Mildred and his sister Jessie
Carman Dufferin Leader, October 27, 1927
Pilot Mound Sentinel editor Ron Tuckwell knew the Frasers well, and was sorry to learn of Mildred’s death. He reprinted the Carman newspaper article under the headline “Sad Death of Little Fraser Girl” with an added preface: “The many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Fraser were shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden death last week of little Mildred, their four-year-old daughter, a winsome little lass loved by all who knew her—and the sincere sympathy of all is extended to the stricken parents so sadly bereft of this tiny flower.”
The disease was raging in the area, but Murray always worried that his cousin had caught the disease from him. The newspaper hints at this: “Mr. and Mrs. Fraser were visiting here up until a week ago, and it was immediately after their return home to Carman that news was received here of their loss.” Gordon drove Mildred’s body back to Pilot Mound, where she was interred in the Fraser family plot.
Mildred Fraser
In Canada during the 1920s diphtheria remained a leading cause of death for children under 14, despite the availability of diphtheria antitoxin. Dr. John G. FitzGerald, founder of Connaught Laboratories in Toronto, led the world’s public health war against diphtheria, conducting Canadian field trials between 1926 and 1931, and producing a new toxoid on a large scale. [Rutty, 1996]
The challenge was to get the vaccine into the arms of susceptible children.
Another four-year old dies of diphtheria. Pilot Mound Sentinel, November 17, 1927
The two deaths prompted action. The same newspaper that told of the death of the Laird boy announced a ban on all public gatherings:
Front page notice in the Pilot Mound Sentinel, November 17, 1927
The ban remained in effect a week later:
Pilot Mound Sentinel, November 24, 1927
Impressive public health efforts battled diphtheria and numbers dropped as vaccinations became commonplace. Health officials in Brandon, for instance, launched extensive campaigns to encourage immunization, and results were encouraging. Manitoba editors pushed for aggressive efforts:
It is a well established fact that smallpox, diphtheria and typhoid fear can be absolutely prevented and banished from our midst. These frightful diseases can be rendered extinct as the dodo, leprosy or yellow fever. Yet they continue to stalk through the land claiming their thousands of victims every year. Why? Because of what amounts to criminal negligence on the part of health officials and people generally.
Our Western prairie provinces pride themselves in their work for the promotion of health, but they still have a long way to travel in the direction of the eradication of preventable disease. There is much educational work yet to be done, and it is sincerely to be hoped that provincial health departments, municipal councils and health offices, all doctors, and every organization interested in the health, happiness and well-being of the people will throw themselves unreservedly into the campaigns now in progress [...] for the wiping out of preventable disease. The community which does not engage in this warfare stamps itself as hopelessly backward, and indifferent to the best interests and highest welfare of its people. [Baldur Gazette, April 7, 1927]
Public Health initiatives across the globe promoted immunizations. [Wikipedia]
A Creston Review editorial claimed that many illnesses were largely preventable, and warned that preventable death breaks up the home and can lead to juvenile delinquency. That would lead to poverty, improper living conditions and a breeding ground for disease, creating a vicious cycle. An extreme argument, perhaps, but the editorial ended on a wise note: “Science has made possible the accomplishment of this highly desirable result. It remains for the people to inform themselves and profit by the information which is so readily available to them.”
That last point rings true today.
Canada has one of the lowest child vaccination rates in the developed world. With about one-tenth of Canadian children now going unvaccinated, this means that up to 750,000 young Canadians have no immunity whatsoever against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles. [… Federal Government efforts need to remind] Canadians of the alternative to vaccination: A country wracked by fear, tragedy and landscapes of dead and paralyzed children.
As late as the 1920s diphtheria was killing up to 2,000 young Canadians every year. Even as late as 1943, vaccination apathy meant that the disease was still able to kill 200. Diphtheria hasn’t killed anyone in Canada since 2000, but the disease remains in check purely due to immunization. [Hopper, 2019]
Number of cases of diphtheria in Canada [Government of Canada, 2018]
The arrow marks 1926, the year in which Canada introduced the diphtheria vaccine. Cases start at 9057 in 1924. Between 1929 and 1931 a sharp decline from 9010 to 2031 cases is shown. Another decline begins in 1945 and cases are down to 38 by 1959. From 1984 onward fewer than 10 cases were reported each year, and between 0 and 4 cases were reported between 1992 and 2012. [Government of Canada, 2018]
Today, Canadians give little thought to diphtheria because it is prevented by routine vaccination. But some may recall it through heroic Arctic tales from the 1920s.
In the winter of 1925, a dogsled relay rushed diphtheria antitoxin from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska in what became known as “The Great Race of Mercy.” In temperatures nearing –50˚F several teams took a mere 5½ days to make the dangerous 674-mile (1085 km) trek.
“The Great Race of Mercy” 1925 (3:30)
Four years later in similar winter conditions, pilots Wilfred “Wop” May and Vic Horner made history by flying diphtheria serum 410 miles (660 km) from Edmonton to Fort Vermillion in an open cockpit Avro Avian. (May was already a notable World War I pilot. His was the plane the Red Baron was chasing when the Baron was finally shot down.)
May’s story was featured in a National Film Board vignette:
Canada Vignettes: Wop May (5:02)
Stompin’ Tom immortalized Wop May in song:
Stompin’ Tom knows a Canadian hero when he sees one. (3:30)
Although we no longer fear it, diphtheria has not been eradicated world-wide. We would all be wise to heed the lesson Annie Fraser and her family learned. Listen to the science and don’t be complacent.
Do it for Mildred.
Murray Fraser and his wee cousin Mildred, in front of Gordon Fraser’s harness racing truck.
The City of Winnipeg’s Planning, Property and Development Department recognizes the Laflèche House at 400 St. Charles Street as having architectural and/or historical value, and includes it on their Commemorative List of Historical Resources. [1] A corresponding study of the 1915 home is part of that listing. [2] The study is interesting, although a few details are incorrect. Unlike the similar house at 362, the foundation of 400 St. Charles is not stone, and its red bricks (not painted) are but a decorative feature on its cream-coloured brick veneer.
400 St. Charles Street, c. 1979
Unlike the City’s List of Historical Resources [3], the Commemorative designation is little more than a list of historically interesting properties. While “conservation is encouraged,” there are no restrictions on demolition or alterations, and protection is not assured (unfortunate, given the home’s current neglected state).
The Manitoba Historical Society (MHS) has also deemed the Laflèche House an historic site in Manitoba. Their entry echoes City of Winnipeg files, noting: “This two-storey brick veneer house at 86 St. Charles Street (later renumbered to 400 St. Charles) in Winnipeg was built in 1915 for farmer Louis Jules LaFlèche (1866-1955), his wife Florestine Caron (1876-1954), and their twelve children. A subsequent owner was realtor David R. Finkelstein (c1941-?).” [4]
David R. Finkelstein [5]
Finkelstein? Not the usual French Canadian or Métis name as was typical in the parish in 1942. Who was he?
David R. Finkelstein was born in Poland (other sources say Russia) on April 14, 1880 to Hiam Finkelstein and Hannah Rosenberg and came to Winnipeg in 1885. He attended Manitoba College following graduation from Winnipeg Collegiate Institute (the city’s first dedicated high school at William Avenue and Kate Street, demolished in 1928). Finkelstein was an avid football and rugby player, and was President of the Civic Curling Club (1909–1910).
The clue to his St. Charles connection can be found in a Manitoba Historical Society profile:
He commenced his real estate career in 1901 and worked as a clerk in the firm of F. W. Heubach and W. J. Christie. He helped in the development of the Tuxedo area of Winnipeg. He later served as Mayor of Tuxedo for 36 years, ending a year before his death. He was an active volunteer on behalf of the Canadian Red Cross, having been an original member of a committee formed during the First World War to raise funds for it. In recognition of his community service, he received the King George V Jubilee Medal (1935). [5]
Winnipeg Free Press, November 12, 1901 [6]
The Christie & Heubach partnership lasted from 1901 to 1906, and was a useful training ground for Finkelstein. He worked with Frederick W. Heubach at the Tuxedo Park Company Limited, which purchased property that was to become the Tuxedo subdivision of Winnipeg.
In 1907 F. W. Heubach became the senior partner in the real estate and financial firm of Heubach, Finkelstein and Heubach (his son Claude Campbell [1886-1955]). The firm controlled and partially owned Norwood and Tuxedo. Developing Tuxedo was a risky proposition. Efforts were complicated by the threat of railway lines intersecting the development, competition from real estate in Crescentwood, and the University of Manitoba’s decision to join the Manitoba Agricultural College in Fort Garry instead of Tuxedo.
By 1910 Heubach and associates formed the South Winnipeg Company and hired noted American landscape architects Olmsted Brothers as planners. The Tuxedo land set aside for the university campus ultimately became the Tuxedo Golf Course, which opened in May 1934. [7]
The Town of Tuxedo was formally incorporated on 24 January 1913 with Heubach as its first mayor, and a council of four persons. In 1915 Finkelstein became the mayor, a post he held until 1951, a year before his death. He was often returned to office by acclamation.
Winnipeg Tribune, November 11, 1937 [8]
Frederick William Heubach died on July 1, 1914 at age 54. He was succeeded in business and as mayor of Tuxedo by David R. Finkelstein. Newspapers referred to Finkelstein as “financial broker and president of South Winnipeg, Limited” and by 1927 he was also advertising real estate broker services under his own name: “D. R. Finkelstein & Co.”
Winnipeg Free Press, March 21, 1927 [9]
Winnipeg Free Press, April 14, 1927 [10]
Winnipeg Free Press, April 26,1930 [11]
Winnipeg newspapers of the early 1900s were full of advertisements from real estate and development companies like that of Finkelstein and Heubach. Tuxedo wasn’t the only development being promoted. With unabashed hyperbole agents offered lots in new suburbs they claimed were certain to become the most beautiful and desirable Winnipeg neighbourhoods. Investors were urged to buy now because values were certain to increase.
“Ferry Road” likely refers to present-day Rouge Road in Westwood, where a ferry operated at an old buffalo crossing from 1870 to 1908, when it was moved to St. Charles Street due to low water levels. Winnipeg Free Press, July 16, 1904 [12]
We recognize the reporter's attempt to spell Laflèche. Winnipeg Free Press, June 22, 1910 [13]
Like other neighbourhoods, the undeveloped Westwood area (east of St. Charles Street and the Glendale Golf and Country Club) was hyped extensively. A 1906 advertisement urged investors to “Buy Land! Buy Land! Buy Land! Here in Western Canada lies the chance of a lifetime. Don’t let your opportunity go by and live with your family in poverty and die a poor man’s death. Get your title deeds to a piece of city or farm property if you have to pawn your clothes to do it.” [14]
Finkelstein juggled his time as mayor of Tuxedo with his real estate business. It is perhaps in this capacity that he was first attracted to 86 St. Charles Street. He might have noticed the home if he had occasion to use the ferry at the end of the street. Perhaps he drove past it en route to the Royaumont Golf Course. It is also likely that he saw the 1941 ad below among his own real estate listings:
Winnipeg Tribune, November 29, 1941 [15]
Interesting. It seems an employee of Finkelstein’s lived there in 1945:
Flora Ann McInnes lived with her sister, Mrs. Mary M. Partington, at 86 St. Charles Street. Winnipeg Tribune, November 6, 1945 [16]
A few months later, in July 1946, Finkelstein placed the following ad in the Winnipeg Free Press. The property address isn’t specified, but perhaps the estate being closed is that of Flora Ann McInnes.
Winnipeg Free Press, July 30, 1946 [17]
Lacking a more definitive narrative, we can only speculate (never advised) about Finkelstein’s dealings in St. Charles. But these clippings offer the only available clues, and engage our imagination.
Pillars of the Community
By all accounts, David Finkelstein and his wife (Mary Grace Chrysler [Lalande] [1884–1964]) were, to use a cliché, pillars of the community. They were well-to-do and routinely vacationed in southern destinations for much of the winter. In the summer they were often reported to be hosting guests at their summer home in Minaki, Ontario.
“Mrs. Finkelstein, with Mr. Finkelstein, is enjoying a sojourn to California and other southern points.” Winnipeg Tribune, January 24, 1936 [18]
Mary Finkelstein (always “Mrs. D. R. Finklestein” in the press) was often featured in the social pages, and received as much attention as her esteemed husband. She was involved in several good causes, and presided over charity campaigns and functions. A skilled golfer, she travelled to tournaments and often took home the trophy. As a daughter of Abraham Lalande, an entrepreneur, early Vancouver realtor, and one of the first aldermen in Dawson City, she was well acquainted with the the kind of work her husband David pursued. [19]
As busy as Finkelstein was as mayor of Tuxedo and real estate tycoon, he also found time for charitable and community-minded pursuits. As was typical of influential citizens and politicians, he was a member of several organizations and charities. In 1918 he was an Honorary Secretary of the Manitoba Division of the Canadian Red Cross, and headed their Suburban Committee during WWII. He was on the executive committee of the Children’s Hospital Fund in 1919, and was an honorary officer of the Greater Winnipeg Housing and Planning Association in 1938.
David R. Finkelstein died on February 14, 1952 in his Tuxedo home, 331 Kelvin Boulevard. He is buried in Gananoque, Ontario, 34 km east of Kingston, in the area where his wife’s family were from.
Winnipeg Free Press, February 15, 1952 [20]
Finkelstein headstone in the Gananoque Cemetery, Ontario [21]
