Together in love and life

Married to each other, to family, to service, to community

By: Erik Pindera

A Mountie and a registered nurse, Gene and Evon Blais lived in dedicated service to their careers, to their communities and to their family.

The couple were married in 1957 in Virden, where Gene had been sent on his first posting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1952, after his childhood in tiny Willow Bunch, Sask., and where Evon had moved from Broomhill in Manitoba’s southwest.

The couple, who prospered after growing up modestly in the Prairies of the Dirty ’30s, died within months of each other earlier this year.

Gene died at a care home in Neepawa at 92 on Jan. 6, while Evon died on her 91st birthday, May 19, at a care home in Minnedosa. They left three sons: Mark, Jon-Paul and Bart; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

“They were really great to us,” said son Jon-Paul Blais, 64, who has retired after a career with Indigenous Services Canada in northern Ontario. “Right from their marriage in ’57, they were truly in love.”

The Blaises first met in Virden at a restaurant where Evon was working in the early 1950s.

“She was working in a local restaurant, making lunches and stuff in the soda shop, and they went to a dance at the legion,” said Jon-Paul.

“I think he… was smitten by her, and then he saw her at the legion and got the nerve up to ask her for a dance… (Afterward) he said ‘Can I walk you around the block?’ They did, and they got to know each other, and the rest is history.”

As Gene worked in Virden, Evon moved to Winnipeg to study to become at a registered nurse at the Misericordia Hospital, graduating in 1956. She joined sorority Beta Sigma Phi, which she was active with throughout her life.

The couple kept in close touch, writing letters and visiting as often as they could, while they were apart.

Gene’s career with the RCMP took the family across the province — from Virden to Thompson to Winnipeg, with other stops in between — and Evon started anew at each local hospital as they moved.

Eventually, the family settled in the province’s capital in 1976, where Gene rose to staff sergeant at Manitoba RCMP headquarters before his retirement in 1987.

Evon became the clinical co-ordinator of obstetrics and maternity and, eventually, director of nursing at the Grace Hospital until her retirement in the 1990s.

“I think they believed a lot in serving the community. I think they believed in people, and helping them,” said Jon-Paul.

“That seems counterintuitive for a cop at times, but he believed in giving people breaks when he could, and he also believed, when someone needed to be helped along to learning a lesson, being charged. He believed in the law and the rules… Mom believed in helping people, nursing them back to health.”

The RCMP transferred the couple to Minnedosa soon after their marriage, then Souris and Russell. As a kid, Jon-Paul looked up to his dad — a man in uniform — who joined the force as a way to see the country and be of service.

“We lived on top of the police station… my first real memories are on top of the police station in Russell,” said Jon-Paul.

“We lived my dad’s life, and my mom would walk down the street to the town’s hospital, it was just a half-block away… Dad just went downstairs and he was at work. He lived and breathed the work.”

The detachment grew — when Gene first was transferred, he was one of two officers, but by the time he left, he was corporal overseeing 10 constables.

Later, Gene was among the officers who provided security for Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Clear Lake, as part of her 1970 tour of the province that coincided with the 100th anniversary of Manitoba’s entry into the Canadian Confederation.

Jon-Paul was just a child, but recalls standing along the main road in town with his mother and brothers, as they waited along with many others to get a glimpse.

“It was a pretty quick event — a wave and they were gone… He took it seriously, and of course, you don’t anything to go awry during your shift, so all of the guys were on top alert and wanting to make sure the royals were safe,” said Jon-Paul.

“He felt honoured about it, being able to help provide that security — it’s a neat thing.”

Oldest son Mark, 67, recalled the family camped most summers in the Clear Lake area, including the summer of 1970.

“Dad was able to tie in working when the Queen was coming and was going to be touring through Clear Lake,” said Mark. “It was absolutely magnificent to see dad out there, and the Queen out there… It was quite the thing.”

The couple were Roman Catholic — volunteering with their Winnipeg parish later in life — and ensured their sons were raised with faith.

That made the visit of Pope John Paul II to Manitoba in 1984, for which Gene oversaw security as the cleric gave mass in Birds Hill Park, particularly important.

“He was a staff sergeant at that time, so he was in a co-ordinating role during the pope’s visit, making sure they had all the radios set up and I’m sure, people stationed all around the park,” said Jon-Paul.

“I just remember him being pretty excited that, of everything that would go on in a command post like that, that it went seamlessly and everybody did their jobs, and the pope was able to come and do his mass in front of a huge crowd… It was a beautiful event… and I think as a Roman Catholic, it made him feel good to be a part of that.”

After their retirements, the Blaises kept active in their community, road-tripped across North America and travelled elsewhere in the world, and hiked the West Coast Trail around age 70 on Vancouver Island.

Evon, also a decorated quilter and dedicated gardener, volunteered with the Grace Hospital’s charity foundation for decades.

Gene worked with the Manitoba RCMP Veterans’ Association.

Russ Waugh, 78, retired from the RCMP as a sergeant. He worked with Gene in Virden, where Gene was both his boss and neighbour, and later when Gene was the section chief out of Winnipeg responsible for the Beausejour detachment.

Their friendship grew when both were active with the veterans’ association in their retirements.

“I think Gene liked everything about the RCMP. He liked helping people,” said Waugh.

A service was held for the Blaises in Regina at the RCMP Depot’s chapel in May, which son Jon-Paul recalled as deeply meaningful.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca