THE HEGARTY STORY 
by Leona (Milholland, Hegarty) Muir
As my brother Bill has given a very good account of our early family history I have very little to add. My three favorite teachers were Mrs. Van Arnam, Miss Oral Smith and Miss Margaret Jacobson. My schooling was short-lived as I went to work for Uncle Hank and Aunt Curly Jacobson as we called them, when I was eleven or twelve years old. After that I worked for Margaret and Augie Bartling when Lloyd Bartling was born. Then I worked at the hotel as waitress. I also worked at Wainwright for a while. I remember riding horseback one winter Saturday afternoon to Mooswa, to my sister Cora's, to go to a dance. I came back home to Elk Point the next day. I was always fond of dancing and my two Uncles George and Bill Bartling and my brother Russell always made sure there was room in the car for me when there was a dance anywhere. I made sure their suits were always pressed. My Dad taught me to dance when I was very young.
Bill and Leona Hegarty, Xmas, 1969.
In 1927 James and Elizabeth Hegarty moved to Elk Point from Manville with their family of five girls and two boys. Mr. Hegarty was the first section foreman on the railroad in Elk Point. It was shortly after that I met their son, Bill Hegarty at a dance. We started dating. It was at that time I went to Mannville to work for Mr. and Mrs. James Third who owned the drug store there. I worked for them one year then Bill and I got married April 23, 1929. Work was as scarce in Manville as it was in Elk Point. In April, 1934, we moved to Kingston, Ontario, where Bill started working for Michea Motors as mechanic until 1952 when they went out of business. One week later he started working for the Department of Highways. He worked there until the end of 1969 when he took double pneumonia from the Asian flu and died January 9, 1970. We had no children. I worked for F. W. Woolworth Co. on a part-time basis from 1954 to 1974, We made a lot of good friends and were both active in church and lodge work. Over the years we have made twelve trips back to Elk Point, Mannville, and Edmonton by bus, train and car. Bill's family also moved to Ontario in 1936. Mr. and Mrs. Hegarty as well as two of Bill's sisters have passed away.
STANDING, Left to Right: Bill and Leona Hegarty, Russell and Helen Milholland, Margaret and John Morusyk.
SEATED: John and Cora Maxwell, Barbara and Bill Milholland, 1958.
I have recently married a very nice man - John Muir, who lost his wife. We had been friends of theirs since 1944. We had sold our house after Bill died so we just bought a cute little bungalow and moved in last summer. John is retired from the Department of Agriculture. We have had two visits from Cora and John, two visits from Margaret and John, one from Mildred, two from Barbara and one from Uncle Augie and Aunt Margaret Bartling. We have had a very happy life and we still like to dance
