Margaret MANSHRECK

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MANSHRECK: Margaret Jane Manshreck (née Caldbick), died peacefully and surrounded by her children at Bren-Del- Win Lodge on 29 August 2013 at the age of 93. Jane was born the first of three children to Ethel and Edward Caldbick on 12 August 1920 on their family farm in Whitewater, Manitoba. She completed her education to Grade 10 in Whitewater, and finished her Grades 11 and 12 in Boissevain. Living close to the train station in Whitewater made it possible for her to ride the train daily to Boissevain for school in fall and spring, while in the winter she would stay during the week in Boissevain with her Aunt Maggie and Uncle Charles Robertson. Upon graduation from high school in 1937, Jane was awarded the Norman White Scholarship for scholastic achievement which allowed her to attend Brandon Normal School (teachers’ college) in Brandon, Manitoba. Graduating during the Depression, teaching jobs weren’t plentiful, but Jane found a position at the one-room school at Croll. As a young teacher, Jane wasn’t much older than some of her students, but she found she loved teaching and working with her students, and spent many evenings marking papers and preparing the next day’s lessons. After one year at Croll, Jane moved to Thirlstane School and, as was common for young school teachers at the time, she met a local farmer in the Thirlstane district, and married Benjamin Franklin in 1943. They started a family with two children, Anne and David, on the family farm north of Deloraine. After Ben’s sudden death in 1953, Jane returned to teaching at Dand School until her marriage to Ralph Manshreck in 1957, and the arrival of two more children, John and Elizabeth. Life was busy as a farmwife raising a family. Community was important, with 4H clubs to support, Sunday schools to teach, and school meetings to attend. Jane was active in congregations at Dand, Deloraine and Goodlands at different times of her life, and developed many special friendships within the communities where she lived. Later in life, Jane had more time to pursue personal interests in gardening, painting and square dancing. She shared a special interest in genealogy with her sister-in-law, Pat Caldbick, and together they traced several branches of the family tree back through many generations. Throughout her life, Jane was renowned for her baking made with farm fresh cream and eggs, and was known as a gracious hostess who was almost always ready with a selection of two or three fruit pies for dinner guests. On those rare occasions when there was only one pie, she would say with a smile, “We have apple pie and raisin pie; the raisin pie is all gone. What will you have?” She is survived by her brother George Caldbick of Chilliwack, BC, her sister Estella Willson of Langenburg, Saskatchewan and by her four children and their spouses: Anne and Mitch Taylor of Vancouver, BC; Elizabeth and Bob Corbet of Okotoks, Alberta; David and Lee Franklin of Ferndale, Washington; John and Ann Manshreck of North Vancouver, BC. She is also survived by ten grandchildren and seven great grandchildren who were a great joy to her. Memorial donations may be made on behalf of Jane to the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba.

As published in Brandon Sun on Sep 14, 2013