Lois Hole

The Honourable
Lois Hole
CM, AOE
15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
In office
February 10, 2000 – January 6, 2005
Monarch Elizabeth II
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson
Premier Ralph Klein
Preceded by Bud Olson
Succeeded by Norman Kwong
Personal details
Born Lois Elsa Veregin
(1929-01-30)30 January 1929
Buchanan, Saskatchewan
Died 6 January 2005(2005-01-06) (aged 75)
Edmonton, Alberta[1]
Spouse(s) Ted Hole 1952[2]–2003 (his death)
Profession Author
Businesswoman
Horticulturalist
Educator

Lois Elsa Hole, CM, AOE[3] (née Veregin; 30 January 1929 – 6 January 2005) was a Canadian politician, businesswoman, academician, professional gardener and best-selling author. She was the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta from 10 February 2000 until her death. She was known as the "Queen of Hugs"[4] for breaking with protocol and hugging almost everyone she met, including journalists, diplomats and other politicians.[5]

Early life and education

Lois Elsa Veregin was born in Buchanan, Saskatchewan, to Michael M. Veregin and Elsa Viktoria Norsten in 1929, not 1933, as was later misreported.[6] Her family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1948, where she completed her education at Strathcona Composite High School.[5]

Family

In 1950, she met Ted Hole, a young University of Alberta agriculture student. Several years later they married and moved to a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm near St. Albert, Alberta. Lois and Ted Hole ran a successful market garden business from their farm which they, along with their sons Bill and Jim, incorporated as Hole's Greenhouses & Gardens Ltd. in 1979. [3] It remained one of Western Canada's largest retail greenhouse stores until it closed in early 2011 when the Hole family moved the operation to their new site on the edge of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park, and opened the Enjoy Centre.

Writings

In 1993 Lois Hole wrote her first book, Vegetable Favourites, and went on to write five more in the "Favourites" series. There are currently more than 1,000,000 copies of the various books in this series in print. The series won the Educational Media Award from the Professional Plant Growers Association in 1996. In 1998, Hole's Greenhouse began publishing their own books starting with Hole's autobiographical I'll Never Marry a Farmer. She also wrote several books with her son, Jim. Hole's Greenhouse has continued to publish gardening books along with a successful annual magazine, Lois' Spring Gardening.

Affiliations/Awards

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999 and a Dame of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 2000. In 1995, she was named Edmonton Business and Professional Woman of the Year and St. Albert's Citizen of the Year. In 2003 she was awarded the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Humanitarian Award. She was made an "Honorary Patricia" by the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

Ted and Lois Hole's deaths

During his wife's term in office, Ted Hole died of cancer in April 2003. Lois Hole had been diagnosed with abdominal cancer[7] in 2002, making a public announcement the following year when she began treatment in early 2003. Her health improved, temporarily, but by late 2004, her case was terminal. Her illness prevented her from making several scheduled public appearances. She died in office at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton on 6 January 2005, aged 75.

Age

Most sources cited 1933 as Lois Hole's year of birth based on her reported age at death. However, the Edmonton Journal,[8] the Royal Alberta United Services Institute's newsletter[4] and the Legislature of Alberta[3] all indicate that she was born in 1929. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta confirmed that Hole was born on 30 January 1929.[9]

Legacy

The Alberta Library Trustees Association (ALTA) established the Lois Hole Award in 2001. In November 2004, two months before Lois Hole's death, the Capital Health Authority in Edmonton announced that a new wing of the Royal Alexandra Hospital would be named the Lois Hole Hospital for Women. It opened 13 April 2010 and consolidated the women's health programs and services based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital into one building.

On 19 April 2005 the Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park was established, becoming the 69th provincial park in Alberta. The park contains the former Big Lake Natural Area and an additional 302 hectares of Crown land, for a total of 1421 hectares. The lake makes up around 59 per cent of the park's total area.

In 2008 the Edmonton Public Library opened the Lois Hole Library in Callingwood North. It features a sculpture of Lois Hole by Danek Mozdzenski and a reading garden. In 2009, the City of St. Albert declared 14 May to be Lois Hole Day. A bronze statue designed by Barbara Paterson called A Legacy of Love and Learning was unveiled at city hall on this day.

Personal Education and Involvement in education

Bibliography

  • Lois Hole's Vegetable Favourites (originally published as Northern Vegetable Gardening)
  • Lois Hole's Bedding Plant Favourites (originally published as Northern Flower Gardening: Bedding Plants)
  • Lois Hole's Perennial Favourites
  • Lois Hole's Tomato Favourites
  • Lois Hole's Rose Favourites
  • Lois Hole's Favourite Trees & Shrubs
  • I'll Never Marry a Farmer
  • Herbs & Edible Flowers
  • The Best of Lois Hole
  • Lois Hole's Favourite Bulbs'
  • Bedding Plants Q&A (with son Jim Hole)
  • Roses Q&A (with son Jim Hole)
  • Perennials Q&A (with son Jim Hole)
  • Vegetables Q&A (with son Jim Hole)
  • Trees & Shrubs Q&A (with son Jim Hole)
  • Lois' Spring Gardening annual magazine 1998–2008

Arms

References

  1. ↑ Perry & Powell (2006), p. 662
  2. ↑ Perry & Powell (2006), p. 655
  3. 1 2 3 Legislature of Alberta website
  4. 1 2 RAUSI (Royal Alberta United Services Institute)
  5. 1 2 Obituary at the For Posterity's Sake website Archived 8 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Perry & Powell (2006), p. 653
  7. ↑ Edmonton Journal coverage of Lois Hole's cancer diagnosis Archived 21 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Edmonton Journal archive
  9. ↑ Date of birth confirmed as 30 January 1929 via email from Mary Hunt, Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Room 212 Legislature Building, Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B6
  10. ↑ Canadian Heraldic Authority. "The Public Register of Arms, Flags, and Badges of Canada> Lois Elsa Hole". Queen's Printer for Canada. Retrieved 10 February 2014.

Bibliography

  • Perry, Sandra E.; Powell, Karen L. (2006). On Behalf of the Crown: Lieutenant Governors of the North-West Territories and Alberta, 1869–2005. Edmonton, Alberta: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-4-4.
Academic offices
Preceded by
Louis Davies Hyndman		 Chancellor of the University of Alberta
1994–1998		 Succeeded by
John Thomas Ferguson
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