Tribute

The family of Addie Mary Mahon announce her passing on March 12, 2014 at the Victorian Community Health

Centre in Kaslo, BC at the age of 90. She was the youngest daughter of Caroline Lum and

Jim Buckman, born September 18, 1923 in Athalmer, BC. Addie was raised with her siblings at

the family home in Fort Steele, BC where she attended school to grade 8 in the one

room schoolhouse now located in Fort Steele Heritage Park. For high school, Addie travelled on the mail

bus and attended Central School in Cranbrook, BC. Once Addie finished school she joined her sisters in

Vancouver, BC and worked making white wire cable and after studying welding worked as a welder at

the shipyards during WWII. She later returned to Fort Steele and married Bill Mahon in 1946. Addie and Bill

lived in Williams Lake, Fort St. James, Prince George and Fort Steele before settling in Kaslo, in the late

‘50s to raise their son Brian. A long time resident of Kaslo, Addie worked at the hospital as a nurse’s aide

for 24 years until she retired. An active member of the community she enjoyed golf and was a tireless

volunteer with the Brownies, Girl Guides and the Boy Scouts of Canada and in later years was a member of

the West Kootenay Trefoil Guild, she also volunteered with the Catholic Women’s League, as well as being

a lifetime member of the Ladies Legion Auxiliary. In her retirement, Addie travelled to exotic locations such

as Egypt but more often she travelled throughout the province to visit family. Addie enjoyed a good cup of

coffee and a lively conversation and engaged life on her terms seeing the good in others and the best of

any situation. Predeceased by her husband Bill in 1964 and son Brian in 2005, her parents in the early

‘60s, sisters Matilda (Amelia) Tuck, Lucille Loseth, the twins Edith Jane and Margarite Buckman, and

Anne Grainger and brothers Alfred Buckman, Richard Charles Buckman, Francis Buckman and Alan (Bucky)

Buckman. She is survived by the extended Buckman, Lum and Ban Quan families originally of the Fort

Steele and Cranbrook area. Addie was kind, generous and considerate with her heart and home always open

and welcoming; she will be sadly missed by friends and family, especially her many nieces and nephews

all of whom adored her.