Emotional resonance Independent spirit sustained Westman couple’s enduring harmony — at home, on record and on stage By: David Sanderson Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026

“I’ll surround you with love so warm that you’ll never find your way out to the cold,

For as long as you want me and these two loving arms,

Then I’ll promise that our sweet love will never grow old.”

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BRANDON — Two Loving Arms is a track from Bill and Sue-On Hillman’s fourth album, 14 Original Songs, which hit store shelves in 1975.

Bill penned the tender ballad for Sue-On, back when the married couple, oft-referred to as “Western Manitoba royalty,” was a top draw in the province, as well as in Saskatchewan and pockets of the northern United States.

Four years ago this month, Bill and Sue-On’s daughter China-Li and her husband, Scott, hosted their wedding reception at the Manitoba Club, on Broadway. For the father-daughter dance, China-Li, a key member of Health Sciences Centre’s diagnostic radiology team, chose Two Loving Arms, with the selection coming as a total surprise to her mom and dad.

“Scott and I came up with the idea after hearing my dad tell us about writing the song, so we looked it up on their website,” China-Li says, referring to an exhaustive domain documenting her Brandon-based parents’ singular, 60-year musical odyssey. “When we heard it and saw the lyrics, we knew it was perfect for the occasion. Watching the emotions cross their faces as they recognized the song was something I’ll remember forever.”

Bill, 83, grew up near Strathclair, on a farm his great-grandfather started in 1880. He developed an interest in music at the age of 12, not long after Elvis Presley began denting the charts in the mid-1950s.

His parents gifted him his first guitar — a Harmony Monterey Sunburst acoustic he still owns — in 1959. A quick study, within two years he was able to pay for his schooling at Brandon College, now Brandon University, with wages he was earning in dance groups such as the Dovermen, the Blue Angels and the Flamingo Combo.

Sue-On, 78, is originally from China. Her family emigrated to Canada in 1958, settling in Newdale, 15 kilometres east of Strathclair, where they opened a small restaurant. Down the street from their establishment was a hardware store owned by Bill’s parents, and through the store Sue-On became close friends with Bill’s younger sister, Bonnie.

“I mentioned to Bonnie that I liked her brother, and asked if she could set us up”

Sue-On was already familiar with Bill — she used to watch him perform on the CKX-TV Noon Show, a live news-and-entertainment program shot in Brandon — when he returned to Strathclair in 1964 to teach high school, after attaining an English degree.

“I mentioned to Bonnie that I liked her brother, and asked if she could set us up,” Sue-On says, seated on a couch in the lower level of their sprawling three-level home in Brandon’s North Hill neighbourhood.

“My parents were definitely against the idea — they didn’t like the fact Bill wasn’t Chinese — but since ours was the only Chinese family around, I was like, who did they expect me to meet?”

The two tied the knot in August 1966. By then, Bill was with the Country Gentlemen, a western-flavoured troupe whose greatest claim to fame was backing Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Curtola. Bill recalls how it was commonplace for him to teach all day, before driving 90 kilometres to Brandon to entertain crowds five nights a week at one watering hole or another.

“The thing was, I’d seen too many relationships fail because the guy was away from home so much, playing in a band, and I didn’t want that to be our situation,” he continues, reaching for Sue-On’s hand. “And because I knew she’d studied classical piano and sang in the church choir, I suggested she join the group, which she was more than happy to do.” (He chuckles, saying because his wife, who also studied to be a teacher, was the “furthest thing from a gentleman,” the band changed its moniker to the Western Union, with Sue-On handling vocals and drums, an instrument she proved a natural at following a few informal lessons.)

“We did that one at Century 21 in Winnipeg, the first professional studio in Western Canada, and the difference was like night and day”

In 1970, the Western Union, with Bill’s longtime collaborators Barry Forman on bass and fiddle and Jay Kroeger on rhythm guitar, recorded its self-titled debut album in Winnipeg. Bill and Sue-On were less than pleased with the result. The record sounded tinny, they agreed, plus there was an audible echo on most of the 12 tracks, a set of circumstances that caused them to go elsewhere for their followup effort, 1971’s Album No. 2.

“We did that one at Century 21 in Winnipeg, the first professional studio in Western Canada, and the difference was like night and day,” Bill says, pointing out a framed copy of the LP hanging on the wall behind them. “We shopped it around to different labels but since they wanted everything including the rights to our originals, we ended up financing it ourselves, which is what we continued to do for the rest of our career.”

The Hillmans spent the bulk of the ’70s teaching from September to June — he in Strathclair and she in Birtle — and hitting the road July 1 to play summer fairs and festivals throughout the region, billed alternately as the Hillman Express or under their own names. In 1979, the same year they won an entertainer-of-the-year award at the Manitoba Country Awards ceremony, they travelled across the pond to England for a whirlwind tour that saw them play 30 dates in 29 days.

“We quickly became known as the Hillmans from Canada, and the people coming to see us really dug our mix of country, pop and rock,” says Bill, whose clear tenor voice made him sound like a long-lost member of the Everly Brothers. “We played anywhere that would have us, pretty much. That included a night when we did a full set before a bingo game, and, if you can believe, a second set after they were finished calling numbers.”

While abroad, the Hillmans recorded a well-received live album expertly backed by a local group, Desperado. Imagine their surprise three years later when British rock band Dire Straits put out its hugely successful fourth album, Love Over Gold, with Desperado’s leader Alan Clark listed as its new keyboardist.

Bill and Sue-On toured England twice more in the ensuing years. Thanks to their “real jobs” teaching, they felt they had the best of both worlds: the ability to play for the pure enjoyment of it without having to fret about making ends meet should one of their records — they issued 12 in total, including three CDs — fail to meet expectations, sales-wise.

“We listened to people who went the route of quitting their careers and going all-in, music-wise, and how it was usually a struggle,” Sue-On says. “Bill and I were quite content with our little piece of the pie, especially after our first (child) came along in 1978.”

As if they weren’t busy enough, in 1992 they took over Soo’s Chop Suey House, a popular Brandon dining spot previously run by Sue-On’s father and brother. Shortly thereafter, the parents of three relocated from Strathclair to their present home in Brandon in order to be closer to the restaurant.

“Soo’s, named after my dad, definitely kept us hopping, but we still jammed almost every Saturday night in a next-door banquet room,” Sue-On says, adding their New Year’s Eve shows featuring original compositions sprinkled with crowd favourites by the likes of Chuck Berry, Tom Jones and the Eagles became legendary in the area, regularly selling out weeks in advance.

“We kept (Soo’s) for 10 years until selling the property to investors in 2002, the same year I started teaching English at Brandon University, where Bill was already on staff.” (Like Johnny Cash famously did at Folsom Prison and San Quentin State Prison, the Hillmans also reserved time in their hectic schedules to bring their act to correctional facilities, including the Saskatchewan Penitentiary near Prince Albert.)

The Hillmans remained musically active into the 2010s, headlining at homecoming events in Strathclair, Newdale and McCreary. These days, the grandparents of six are largely retired, though not by choice.

“I’m dealing with carpal tunnel in my hands making it difficult to hold a guitar. Plus, Sue-On had major brain surgery — she’s fully recovered — last year,” Bill reports. “We’ll maybe sing if we get together with family, but that’s about it. Mostly, I spend my days maintaining our website (hillmanweb.com), which has close to five million hits from all over the world. And eating gourmet meals. Sue-On is an absolute wiz in the kitchen.”

Sue-On smiles, saying hardly a day passes when she’s out and about in the community and isn’t stopped by somebody telling her they miss the restaurant, or seeing her and Bill on stage.

“Bill likes to joke how it always takes me two hours to pick up a few things from the grocery store, except it’s completely true. People are so sweet and if they want to spend however long chatting about the good old days, it’s not like I’m in a rush.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca