Gardener.
Born at Winnipeg on 17 December 1919 to Marla Nowicka (1897-1984) and Wasyl Rybak (1894-1985), she married Nicholas Gory (1919-2011) on 14 July 1940, and they went on to have three children.
She was an avid tomato grower and developed her own techniques for growing them in her home garden. This influenced her son, Brian Gory, to get involved in gardening, and he went on to invent a water-filled, frost-preventing cover called a Kozy-Coat especially for tomato plants. In the 1990s, she became a public figure, featured in television ads as “the tomato woman” demonstrating how Kozy Coats could help gardeners pick ripe tomatoes before their neighbours. Producing the product became a family business. Her son was known as “Mr. Tomato.”
She was an exceptionally energetic person, approaching her many activities with tireless enthusiasm. Besides being an award-winning gardener, she excelled at cooking, and enjoyed golfing, curling, pottery-making, bowling, and making music with her violin. Some referred to her as a Renaissance woman. She also loved playing penny poker with her family, and spending time with them at the cottage at Falcon Lake.
She died at Winnipeg on 15 January 2012.
Birth registration [Olive Rybak], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Marriage registration [Olive Rybak, Nicholas Gory], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Nicholas (Nick) Gory], Winnipeg Free Press, 23 March 2011.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 21 January 2012.
“How did Mr. Tomato get his name?”, Manitoba Lifestyles 55, 2 February 2022.
Olive Rybak, Magloire Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 21 April 2026
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