Archief paa-7731 - Edith and William Rogers fonds

Edith Blanche Cox was born September 20, 1894 in Eastville, Nova Scotia to Samuel G. and Mahala (née Graham) Cox. She attended the Eastville Nova Scotia High School and Normal School and subsequently taught in Nova Scotia. In 1913 Edith visited her aunt, Mrs. Alfred (Margaret) Redmond, in Edgerton, Alberta, where Edith was invited to teach at the Bloomington school. Edith attended the Camrose Normal School in 1914 and then taught near Tofield, Alberta and again in Edgerton. In 1918 she began work in the Merchants Bank (which amalgamated with the Bank of Montreal) at Edgerton, then Tofield in 1922 and finally Killam, Alberta in 1923. On October 12, 1923 she married William Wright Rogers, the principal of the Killam High School. William had come to Strathcona, North-West Territories in 1904 with his parents. He attended the Grandin Street School, the Stranthcona Collegiate Institute, the University of Alberta and the Calgary Normal School. He taught at the Willow Creek School, west of Leduc, Alberta, before enlisting in 1914. After Edith and William were married, William was principal at Edgerton, Warner, Alberta and Crossfield, Alberta. In 1929, Edith and William moved to Calgary where they became interested in William Aberhart's Social Credit ideas; from 1933 to 1935 they traveled throughout Alberta speaking and helping organize the Social Credit Party. Edith was a Social Credit candidate in the Ponoka constituency in 1935 where she defeated Premier John E. Brownlee; she was defeated in the 1940 election. The Rogers moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1940. During the Second World War, William worked for the Marine Operators, a contracting firm from Omaha Nebraska and Edith was on the auditing staff of the United States Army, Corps of Engineers. Edith was elected as a school trustee to the Edmonton Public School Board in October 1959, and served until her retirement in October 1974. A school in Millwoods (Edmonton) was named in her honour. In 1973, she was awarded with a life membership in the Alberta School Trustee Association. She is the author of <em>Pioneers of the West and History Made in Edmonton</em>. William died November 7, 1968 and Edith died July 17, 1985.