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Weston Girls to reminisce over coronation By John Bkila OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF On June 2, 1953, 16-year-old Maryellen Love was one of 50 girls selected across Canada to witness Queen Elizabeth's coronation. Sixty years later, The Oakville Beaver sat down with Love in her Oakville home as she reminisced on what she calls one of the most exciting and extraordinary times of her life. In her living room, with a table full of memorabilia from her trip, Love flipped through her itinerary book, photo albums and newspaper clippings with images of her as a 16-yearold. Canadian entrepreneur Garfield Weston, who served as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons during the Second World War, was the man responsible for organizing and sending the girls, many for the first time, overseas to witness the coronation of the new queen. Affectionately called "the Weston girls," the teenagers were given the chance to travel to the U.K., primarily as a way to foster stronger ties and a greater understanding between England and Canada -- the trip was also meant to provide an educational experience for "the growth and development of individuals of promising potential," according to a website dedicated to the Weston girls tour. One of those individuals was Love, an outgoing, small-town girl from Cobalt, Ont., which had a population of about 1,500 at the time. "It was my high school, Cobalt High School, that was chosen... we were the only high school in Northern Ontario chosen to select a person to attend the coronation tour," said Love, who admits she has no idea how her high school was chosen, but was pretty glad it was, in retrospect. "My goodness, was that something special. I was thrilled to death to have been selected," said Love. "The town actually threw a party for me one evening, too, and presented me with a movie camera, and a still camera, to document the trip... It was an amazing time." Love said Weston provided the girls with everything they needed, including suitcases, a little spending money and even clothing. "It was not only a special honour to have been selected, but a privilege and 9 · Friday, June 1, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com MARTA IWANEK / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @halton_photog memories last a lifetime: Maryellen Love, holds a book she kept as a memory and a picture of her, at 16 years old, from a newspaper clipping of when she went overseas to witness Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's coronation. along with that, a responsibility as well," Love said. "Not only was I to represent Cobalt and Canada overseas, we were to come back and speak to clubs and share our experiences. "Being from a small mining town in Northern Ontario, these experiences were not available to almost any of us at that time." Although Love said she was excited, she admits she was scared, too. "I would be travelling by myself on a train to Toronto, congregating with other girls I've never met and from there we'd take the ship from Montreal," she said. Weston knew some of the girls might be feeling this apprehension, so while on the weeklong cruise trip to England, the girls were given lessons in table manners, taught how to properly greet a royal and how to curtsy. "We were being groomed," she said. "I felt very appreciative of all this. We were going to need this knowledge and here they were presenting us with it, so we wouldn't have to worry about it. A weight was kind of lifted." Led by Weston's daughters, the tour would last eight weeks, with two of those weeks dedicated to sea travel, and would span from England, Ireland, and Scotland, to a weekend in Paris. The girls would also see a play at the Criterion Theatre on Piccadily Circus in Westminster, and visit the famous Madame Tussauds' wax museum and Oxford, days before witnessing the coronation -- in addition to See History page 11 Aboard the Empire Sandy Saturday, June 16th, 2012 Tickets going Fast! Come Sail Away........ Universal Driving Education Inc. "Let us put you in the drivers Seat" AFTERNOON LIGHT LUNCH & CRUISE 12:30 pm Boarding Tickets $55/ adult, $27.50/ child 2-12 Over 25 Years in business serving Burlington & Hamilton now opening Oakville location · Grand Opening Special $530 HST Included OR EVENING DINNER & DANCE 6:30 pm Boarding Tickets $80/ person Live Entertainment Up coming course 9:30am-3pm June. 27, 28, 29, 30 July. 09, 10, 11, 12 July. 23, 24, 25, 26 July. 30, 31, Aug.01.02 Aug. 13, 14, 15, 16 Aug. 27, 28, 29, 30 123 Maurice Dr Unit 201 Oakville, On. L6K 1J6 (905) 844-3899 www.udsonline.ca Tickets may also be purchased at RBC Bank (4th Line Speers Rd.) Kinette Club of Oakville Serving Our Community's Greatest Needs Tickets available online at www.oakvillekin.org or call us at 905-257-3293