Brandon woman who was oldest Canadian dies

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This article was published 18/01/2025 (287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoban who was the oldest Canadian has died.

Hazel Skuce, who lived to be 112 years and 331 days old, died Jan. 3. She had been the oldest Canadian since June 25.

Skuce, who was the 21st-oldest Canadian in history, according to an online list of Canadian supercentenarians, was a longtime teacher in Brandon. She is still fondly remembered by many of her students, decades after she put her chalk stick down for the last time.

Bob Mitchell, who had Skuce as his Grade 2 and Grade 3 teacher at Fleming School in Brandon from 1962 to 1964, said she was his favourite teacher.

“I feel fortunate to have had such a positive influence on my life during my youth,” the 69-year-old Mitchell said Saturday.

“She was a remarkable lovely lady, a gifted educator, and a nature enthusiast beyond compare.”

Mitchell said Skuce, who was then married to her first husband and known as Mrs. Patmore, had a way of assessing the mood of her students.

“I don’t think she would plan to take the class outside, but she knew when we were experiencing cabin fever, so we would bundle up and go outside,” he said.

“She would also take me (and another student) outside to a park for science. In wintertime, we would see how birds and plants react to winter. I went on to work in climate change and sustainability, and I would think of her at different times and think, “What would Mrs. Patmore think?”

Skuce was born Hazel Short on Feb. 7, 1912. She and her two sisters and one brother were raised by their parents, George and Esther, a few kilometres from Rivers, which is about 30 kilometres northwest of Brandon.

She later married Dick Patmore, who owned Patmore Garden Centre and Nursery in Brandon. After he died, she married John Skuce. She never had any children.

In 2019, Skuce celebrated her 107th birthday with her younger sister, Clara Hornibrook, who was 105. Hornibrook died at 108, while their other two siblings were 95 when they died.

Esther Short, their mother, was 100 when she died.

In a Brandon Sun article in 2019, Skuce couldn’t attribute her longevity to anything special.

“I think what happens, happens,” she said. “I’m just happy today and the next day, and so on.”

As for her teaching career, which involved jobs at several rural schools, Skuce said, “I enjoyed my work, but I just wondered if I was doing a decent job..”

Skuce is not the oldest Canadian ever to be born in Manitoba. That honour goes to Ellen Gibb, who was born in Manitoba but died in Ontario in 2019 at the age of 114 years, 40 days.

With Skuce’s death, Margaret Romans, who was born in Latvia and lives in Quebec, is now — at 112 years and 308 days old — the oldest Canadian.

A memorial service for Skuce is being planned for this summer.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca