Identity area
Type of entity
Family
Authorized form of name
Soars (family)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
unknown
History
Edward John (Jack) Soars was born July 9, 1916 in Peace River. His father was a lineman and his uncle a surveyor in the early 1900s when the land was being surveyed around the area. He recalled a carefree childhood roaming the banks of the Peace River. In 1939 Jack arrived in Grande Prairie to join the staff of CFGP Radio station which was two years old and the only radio station in the area. It was an era when radio personnel went out regularly to cover local events and the station was available for people to phone in announcements and local hockey games were broadcast by his brother-in-law, Fran Tanner. Jack joined the air force during WW II and when he returned to CFGP after the war he started on open line show where people phoned in from all over the Peace country, collect, and could express their views on any topic. He was very interested in the history of the area and invited pioneers to write down memories of their early days in the Peace country and submit them to him. He converted them to scripts and read them on his "Pioneering" program.
Vera Isabel Tanner was born in Mazenod, Saskatchewan on September 2, 1915, second child of Victor and Dorothy Tanner. Her siblings were Donald, Dorothy, and Francis (Fran). The family moved to Grande Prairie in the 1920s. Dorothy (Sr.) died at a young age and Vera was like a mother to Francis. Vera attended school in Grande Prairie Business School and received training in shorthand and typing.
She married Jack Soars in 1940 and they had four children: Diane, John, Gail and Margaret. As a young person, Vera played softball and skated and as an adult she was a member of the ladies bowling and curling clubs in Grande Prairie. She was also a member of I.O.D.E. and Christ Church Anglican Women's Auxiliary. She loved to bake and was always generous, sharing with the neighborhood families whenever she baked.
Vera died in Grande Prairie on Oct. 1,1995. Jack died in Grande Prairie on February 16, 2012.