Popowich, Anne

Person

Popowich, Anne

• Anne Kapusta

1924-present

Anna Kapusta was born in Czechoslovakia in 1924. Her father, Andy, came to Canada in 1926 to make "big money" in order to pay the debt owing on his home and orchard that he had purchased in Czechoslovakia. By the time he had the money and was prepared to go back, WWII was threatening so he decided to pursuade his wife to immigrate instead. On May 8, 1938, Anna and her mother, Suzana, began a long journey to Canada. They arrived in Edmonton June 1, 1938, with no one to meet them as Andy came on a later train. Eventually they were reunited and took a train 60 miles north of Edmonton to Alpen Siding where Andy had taken out a homestead and had a log house and barn and a garden of potatoes and onions. They had one milk cow so their main winter meal was cottage cheese and potatoes. Andy worked cutting timber in winters and the farm grew to include chickens, a couple of pigs and a bigger garden. Anna started school in Gamefield that first winter but the snow was too deep and she didn't have suitable clothes to travel the 4 miles so couldn't go regularly. When her sister Lil was born, she was less lonely.
There was a sawmill close to her father's place and men used to come to buy milk, eggs and mother's homebaked bread. That was how Anna met John Popowich. He always volunteered to come over and pick up purchases for the men. In June, 1942, they traveled by train to Edmonton to get married. John and Anna established their own farm 22 miles south of her parents. After losing some cattle to Black Leg, John decided to make a move. He had been interested in the Peace River country and talked Anna's father into making a trip to check it out. The men were impressed so in the fall of 1948, the men listed their two farms in Radway and the families moved to the Flying Shot Lake district near Grande Prairie. John and Anna had three children: Linda, born 1944, Kenneth, Born 1948 and Evelyn born 1950. They made lots of friends selling eggs, cream, chickens,vegetables and sometimes homemade cottage cheese.
When John died, Ken and Irene took over the farm and Anna moved to town and worked at Heritage Lodge. Later she moved to a Grande Plaza condo. She has grandchildren and great grandchildren too.

Czechoslovakia
Alpen Siding, Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Flying Shot Lake, Alberta
Grande Prairie, Alberta

Daughter of Andy and Suzana Kapusta
Wife of John Popowich
Mother of Linda, Kenneth, and Evelyn Popowich

Final

Partial

Description revised by TD on June 30, 2015.

• English