Farmer, community leader.
Born near Letellier on 31 March 1908, son of Scottish immigrants Catherine Whyte (1876-1943) and Thomas Forrest (1864-1943), he lived his entire life in the Red River Valley in the districts of Letellier, Marais, Silver Plains, Broadview, and Morris. As a youth, he played baseball for the Letellier team in the Red River Valley Baseball League. The team also played in the Roseau River League and won the Beaubien Cup several years in succession. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, he and his brother Bill played for the Letellier hockey team called the Flying Frenchmen. He was a player when the club won the Malloy Cup (Provencher Constituency); the International League Trophy (Letellier, Emerson, Morris, and Hallock, ND); and the Tip Top Cup (teams along the Lord Selkirk Highway from St. Norbert to Emerson). In later years, he curled in the Farmers League.
He met Ethel Margaret Reid (1908-2003) while she was teaching at Armour School. They were married on 27 September 1941 and lived on the Forrest family mixed farm near Letellier for two years. They soon purchased a farm in the Broadview district where they lived until 1981 when they moved to Morris. They had one daughter. He was a lifelong member of the Order of the Eastern Star (OES), where he served as Worthy Grand Patron, and the Masonic Lodge, where he was District Deputy Governor. For many years, he and his wife travelled throughout Manitoba as ambassadors for both organizations. He was active in the Morris United Church, director for the Valley Agricultural Society, trustee for Broadview School, and a member of the Morris Pool Elevator. One of the founders of the Manitoba Stampede, his indicator of a successful event was the Heavy Horse Show ring full with six-horse teams.
He died at the Red River Valley Lodge in Morris on 22 July 2004 and was buried in the Morris Cemetery.
Birth registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Furrows in the Valley: A Centennial Project of the Rural Municipality of Morris, 1880-1980.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 26 July 2004.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 25 June 2020
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