Local hero – Elizabeth Walker – Author of Street Names of Vancouver

I was filled with foreboding when I called a friend of mine tonight – a woman in her 90s who I hadn’t spoken to for many months – and her phone was out of service.

Elizabeth Walker – a pre-eminent local historian, librarian, and author of the the book, Street Names of Vancouver (1999) – would not have gotten a cell phone at this stage of her life, nor engaged in any social media so hearing the recorded message tonight gave me pause.

I said a little prayer that she had moved to a seniors residence but a google search found, instead, her obituary.

I met Elizabeth while I was working at the City of Vancouver Archives in the 1990s. We shared many laughs about retrieving the South Vancouver voters’ lists almost every time she came as she checked and cross-referenced names of early settlers and voters in the higgeldy-piggeldy streets of early South Vancouver – a separate municipality until 1929.

Here’s more about Elizabeth and her rich and interesting life.

RIP Elizabeth. It was great knowing you!