Memorable Manitobans: Nelson Menno Shoemaker (1911-2003)

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Nelson Menno Shoemaker
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Insurance and real estate agent, MLA (1958-1959), MLA (1959-1962), MLA (1963-1966), MLA (1966-1969).

Born on a farm near Grandview on 17 February 1911, son of Allen Shoemaker (1877-1959) and Louetta Alice Harkness (1891-1994), he received his elementary education in the one-room Artemesia School and high school at Grandview. His business career began in 1931 when he took up the Neepawa dealership for Watkins products. He was later a partner in the insurance and real estate firm of Shoemaker-McGilvray Agencies. Eventually he was joined by Homer Gill.

He was first elected to the Manitoba Legislature at the 1958 general election, and was re-elected in 1959, 1962, and 1966. He was defeated in 1969 by James Robert Ferguson. In recognition of his community service, he received a Canadian Centennial Medal (1967).

On 29 June 1933, he married schoolteacher Edith Emma Ford (1903-1999, daughter of Fred F. Ford) and they had two daughters: Penelope Lynn “Penny” Shoemaker and Erin Diane Shoemaker. He served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Neepawa Curling Club (1952-1960s), director of Associated Hospitals of Manitoba (1955-1960), alderman for the Town of Neepawa (1956-1959), and a member of the Neepawa Lions Club, Neepawa Curling Club, Manitoba Real Estate Board, and Insurance Agent’s Association of Manitoba.

He died at Neepawa on 10 June 2003 and was buried in the Neepawa Riverside Cemetery.

Sources:

The Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1960.

“Second resident receives medal,” Brandon Sun, 23 December 1967, page 32.

Pioneers of Grandview and District edited by Emmy Preston & Pioneer Book Committee, 1976, page 220-222.

Obituary [Louetta Alice Shoemaker], Grandview Exponent, 20 July 1994, page 20.

Obituary [Edith Emma Shoemaker], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 January 1999, page 33.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 13 June 2003.

“They will never be forgotten,” Winnipeg Free Press, 31 December 2003, pages A6-7.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (deceased), Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 8 June 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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