Beatrice Erma Marie (Prouse) Keyes

With sadness, the family announces that on March 31, 2022, at the age of ninety-six, their beloved mother, Beatrice, went home to be with her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Beatrice Erma Marie (Prouse) Keyes was born on August 18, 1925, to Ruth and Oliver Prouse, the second eldest of twelve children: ten girls and two boys. Her early years were spent on the family farm near Compeer, Alberta When Beatrice was eight, the drought of the “Dirty Thirties” forced them to leave their land and the family relocated to Kelvington, Saskatchewan.

After she completed grade twelve, Beatrice and her sister Gladys, both completed teacher training in Saskatoon and started teaching in northern Saskatchewan. At Nestledown, a one-room country school, Beatrice taught grades one through eight and kept the fire going in the wood heater. She boarded at Joe and Dorothy Keyes’ farm and, when their son came home to visit one weekend, she met her future husband, Ray.

Ray and Beatrice married in 1946 and were soon farming their own land in the Canwood area of Saskatchewan and starting a family. Her first five children, she referred to as her “Saskatchewan Kids”: Brian, Evelyne, Lyle, Lois, and June. In 1955, with their children in tow, they began a new adventure and moved west to Alberta, where Ray worked in a lumber camp at Carrot Creek, and later on a farm near Leduc. That is where their “Alberta Kids”, Doug and Gloria, were born and their family of seven was complete.

Ray and Beatrice loved the Carrot Creek area and in 1961 bought a quarter of land to farm. They worked closely with their neighbours and forged strong and lasting friendships. In 1964-65, Beatrice returned to the classroom and taught grade two in Niton Junction School and was a substitute teacher for several years after.

Beatrice had a wide variety of interests from sewing and cooking to gardening, farming and nature.  Most of all she loved teaching her grandchildren everything from schoolwork to practical skills. But her favorite activity with the grandkids was going on adventure walks to discover the wonders of nature.  

In her later years, after Ray passed on, she continued to help Brian on the farm with the cows and later, when she couldn’t get out as much, taught herself to paint and learned how to use the cell phone to text and share pictures.

To Beatrice, her family was precious. Her strong, quiet faith gave her comfort and peace. For all of us who were fortunate enough to have had her in our life, we remember a loving, kind and wise woman.  

To cherish her memory, Beatrice leaves her children Evelyne (Bob), Lyle (Irma), Lois (Glenn), June (Pat), Doug (Valerie), Gloria (Al), and her daughter in law Denise.

twenty-one grandchildren,

fifty-three great grandchildren,

and four great great grandchildren.

Nine siblings, Violet, Gladys, Dorothy, Ruth, Myrtle, Edna, Isobel (Morris), Russel (Lorraine) and Nadine (Dale) and numerous friends and family.

She was predeceased by her parents, Oliver and Ruth, her in laws Joe and Dorothy, sister Connie, brother Oliver, her husband Ray, her son Brian, her daughter in law Gloria (Lyle), and her infant granddaughter Jennifer Lee.

A Memorial Service will be held at the Carrot Creek Hall at 1 PM, Saturday, April 9^th, 2022, with Reverend George Stone officiating. A private family burial will be followed by lunch and fellowship at the hall.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be offered to the Woodlands Cemetery at Carrot Creek, Carrot Creek Christian Fellowship, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS), or to a charity of one’s choice.