JUANITA HATTON: it’s because | was in this kind

_ Who. IS...

Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 24, 1990 Bil

“Juanita Hatton?

‘She’ s the fairy godmother of.

the unemployed. and under-
privileged in Terrace. She’s a
fighter, a great-grandmother

‘and a graduate of Northwest
' Community. College’s. business
course. But she is not, ‘and never -

has been, a madame.

by Betty Barton

Juanita Hatton, now age 75,
says-this vicious rumor started in
the mid-sixties, when she and
her husband, Jim, lived upstairs
in the building at Kalum and
Lakelse which now houses
Northwest Sportsman. Juanita
ran an exclusive fabric store in
the storefront downstairs. In the
Lakelse Hotel (now the Inn of
the West) lounge one day,
Juanita overheard two other
customers discussing whether or
not she ran a brothel in her

«|. apartment. Juanita was shocked

of a fix that | feel the need to help other people

who are down and out.

Outbuildings come
under city review

TERRACE — The city wili
review current zoning regula-
tions governing the size of un-

_ attached buildings on residential

properties. The review comes in
conjunction with their update of
the Official Community Plan..
That means that any changes
to current bylaws would take

place well into the future. The

review does little to help at least
one Terrace resident who wants
to build an unattached double
garage at the rear of his prop-
erty.

Kevin Wilcox approached city
council early last November re-
questing permission to build an
unattached two-car garage. His
request was denied. The ques-

tion of the size of unattached

buildings in general, though, |

was sent to the Finance Commit-
tee for review, and council’s
decision was based on a recom-
mendation made by the commit-
tee.

Under the present bylaw, no
buildings other than a private
garage, tool shed or greenhouse

can be built at the rear of

residential properties. The max-
imum size for a garage, tool sh-
ed or a separate greenhouse is
200 square feet, and for a com-
bination greenhouse and tool
storage area is 300 square feet.
The average double garage
ranges between 480:square feet

and 576 square feet.

TUESDAY: te ndship:§
WEDNESDAY e: Tetra ack’ Swim Club

‘-and horrified, and still feels

resentful today.

The rumor spread like wildfire
throughout the small of Terrace.
The police investigated. Even-
tually, Juanita was forced to
close her fabric store because
customers were refusing to buy
from her. Nothing was ever pro-
ven, but the damage was done.
Juanita says the only thing she
knows about ‘‘houses of ill
repute’”’ is what she’s read. in
books. “if I was doing some-
thing like that in Terrace, I’d be
so wealthy...’’

At the same time, her husband
left Terrace. Juanita .couldn’t
find work. So, at age 53, she en-
rolled in the business practises

course at the newly-opened.

vocational school (now NWCC).
But she was finally forced to ap-
ply for welfare. She supple-
mented her meagre allowance
with odd jobs, but times were
tough. ‘My worst problem is
that I’m honest. After declaring
my income, I only got $6 from
welfare.”’ Juanita explains fur-
ther, “‘It’s because I was in this
kind of fix that I feel the need to
help other people who are down
and out at Christmas and

‘roadside.

- was the president of the Terrace

throughout the year.’

| Juanita Hatton was born in
Niagara Falls, Ontario. She
went to school in Toronto to

' Grade f1. She completed Grade

12:-back in Niagara Falls. When
asked further about her. educa-
tion, Juanita clarifies, ‘“f’ve on-
ly got Grade 12, a business
course, three industrial first aid
courses. In 1932, Grade 12 was
good because it was during the
depression.”’

Juanita married a Westerner
in Ontario. When she was 35
years old, she and her husband
Jim moved to B.C. They spent
‘‘14 years in the bush’’. They liv-
ed at Mile 84 on the Alska
Highway for a year or so. Jim
was a licensed scaler, millwright,
sawyer and faller. They moved
to Quesnel for four years.
There, son David was killed at
age 13 by a drunken truck driver
on the highway. David and a
friend had been walking on the
Juanita’s other son
had died at age six weeks. Her

-daughter and family. still live in

Ontario.

Juanita and her husband soon
moved back to the Alaska
Highway, where they worked a
timber license for years. When
their first mill site power unit
caught fire, they lost the unit,
but saved the mill, For another

year, they lived at the original

mill site. Juanita became ill and
needed: to be hospitalized in Ft.
St. John.

They were on the coast for a
year, at Sullivan Bay, on the
mainland near Alert Bay. Jim
worked in the bush. Juanita
taught Grade 8 subjects with
correspondence courses to a boy
at Sullivan Bay. Juanita says it
must have been a _ success
because the boy is a lawyer to-
day. After Sullivan Bay, Jim
and Juanita moved to Hazelton,
where Jim’s brother needed ex-
tra manpower and support at his
mill. Hazelton was pretty small
and there wasn’t much for
Juanita to do. She moved to
Terrace and lived in (what had
been) a chicken house, on Walsh
Ave, near the present Skeena
Secondary School. Jim  con-
tinued to work in Hazelton and
came to Terrace on weekends.

When Juanita’s doctor in-
formed her that she had gout, he
recommended that she move
closer to town and not do so
much walking. Juanita and Jim
moved to a house located where
the Video Stop stands today.

Juanita Hatton was born
Juanita Fernandez. Her father
came from Spain. He had hair
the color of mahogany, she says.
Her mother’s family were
United Empire Loyalists.
“We're so Canadian on my
mother’s side. It’s embar-
rassing.”” These first settlers
from Pennsylvania married with
Presbyterian Scots in Ontario.
Juanita’s grandmother was a
Quaker. She still has relatives
who are farmers near Napanee.

Since her arrival in Terrace in
the winter of 1960, Juanita Hat-
ton has played an active role in
the development of Terrace. She

and District Chamber of. Com-
merce in. 1980. In’ 1983, she
worked on plans to re-open the
hog springs resort at Lakelse -
Lake, with the help of a federal
government NEED’ grant. The
process of trying to put that pro--
ject together, in addition: to
keeping the Golden Rule Em-
ployment Agency going for over
13 years, gave Juanita a com-
prehensive understanding of the
workings of government.
Juanita is also a life member of
the federal Liberal Party.

From 1970. through 1983,
Juanita Hatton was the driving
force running the Golden Rule
Employment Agency. Over the
years, she helped hundreds of
people to get jobs. Most of the
grant monies went for rent and
telephones. She ran bingos to
keep it going. The Kinsmen
helped tremendously. Business
people donated prizes for the -
bingo nights. She still gets many
requests from business people
and past clients to re-open the
employment service. Her fund-—
ing was cancelled in 1983 but she
continues to distribute
Christmas goodie bags.

This past Christmas was the
2Ist year that Juanita Hatton,
almost single-handedly, has
distributed Christmas food to
over 200 clients annually. This
year, the ‘‘goodie bags’’ were
distributed from Agar Red and

_ White store, with the kind co-

operation of owners Kathy Juba
and Brian Patrick. Wilma Cos-
taine (CUPE) and her daughter,
Anne Connaughton, and Mrs.
Crompton were Santa’s and
Juanita’s helpers this year. They
started preparations and
solicitation for donations more
than two months before Christ-
mas.

Each recipient of a goodie bag
received one grocery bag of fruit
and vegetables and one of other
groceries, purchased with pro-
ceeds from a raffle held on Box-
ing Day and donations.

Juanita was tempted to cance!
the goodie bags this year due to
poor health; people told her she
shouldn’t push herself. She was:
almost convinced when she re-
ceived a letter from the Ksan
House Society, requesting her
assistance. ‘That got me going
again.’’ She says, ‘‘I’ve proved
to myself that gallstones don’t
kill you. They just make you
wish you were dead.’’

The goodie bag history has
been lengthy, but it’s had its ups
and downs. When the Golden
Rule closed its doors in 1983,
there was no location for collec-
tion or distribution of the goodie
bags. Father Jim at the Catholic
Church offered her the Catholic
Church Hall for a few Christ-
mases. Then she moved to the
Carpenter’s Hall for two years.,:
There, it all had to be done in
one day. Juanita and her small
crew found that arrangement
very tiring.

Now, Juanita counts on the
goodwill of people like Agar
Red and White’s owners.

“God give me strength and
Vil do the goodie bags against
next year,” she says. noes