Betty Greenwell
Mrs. Elizabeth “Betty” Greenwell was born in Kelwood, Manitoba, about 1919. Her father went to Vancouver in 1925 to work as a carpenter and the family permanently relocated in 1926. Her mother suffered from a nervous breakdown in the late 20’s, yet Betty was able to complete high school. She wen ton to university, graduating in 1941 with Honors in Botany. She grew up in Kitsilano in the twenties and thirties. She went on to earn a degree in Botany from UBC in 1941. She taught for a time in Dawson Creek and then at an experimental farm in Saanichton during the war years After the war, she traveled with the “Beaver Brigade” in Europe to aid in the post-war re-construction. She met her husband, a native of the mining town of Extension, Vancouver Island. They married in Vancouver in 1949 and lived in Nanaimo until 1952. They returned to Vancouver after the Nanaimo coalmines shut down. The couple raised four children and were active in the Parent Teacher Association, Hasting Community Centre Association, Hastings Minor Hockey League, Hastings-Sunrise Action Council, Gala Days at New Brighton Park, COPE, End the Arms Race, the Communist Party of Canada.