Picture of Corinne Bonneau probably in 1919

• Year of birth in :  Born on April 11, 1900, in Bonneauville, 1½ miles east of Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan
• Year of death in : passed away prematurely on the 22nd day of December, 1938, in Assiniboia Saskatchewan
• Father name : Bonneau Trefflé (1864-1937)* ref.193
• Mother name : Vaudry Marie-Louise
• Husband : Granger Irénée
• Marriage : January 14, 1919 in Wilow Bunch, Saskatchewan
• Children : 
  1. Granger Anita
  2. Granger Roger
  3. Granger Bibiane
  4. Granger Roch
  5. Granger Renée
  6. Granger Gabrielle
  7. Granger André
  8. Granger Gilles
  9. Granger Rolland
  10. Granger Guy
  11. Granger Bernadette

Picture of Corinne Bonneau and her husband Irénée Granger 1919

Picture of the family of Corinne Bonneau and Irénée Granger

Texte found in the archives of The Ralliements des familles Bonneau

CORINNE BONNEAU & IRÉNÉE GRANGER

 

REFERENCE INFORMATION:

Word of Mouth

Newspaper Clippings

Corinne Bonneau, daughter of Trèfflé Bonneau and Marie-Louise Vaudry, was born on April 11, 1900, in Bonneauville, 1½ miles east of Willow Bunch, Sask. She was a very attractive girl, with brown hair, brown eyes and a very pleasant personality. As a young girl she, as her sister Blanche, was of great assistance to her mother who was gradually losing her eyesight due to cataracts. In 1915, Corinne was among the first boarders in the Willow Bunch Sacred Heart Convent. She later met and fell in love with a young man by the name of Irénée Granger.

Irénée was the son of Romuald Granger and Albina Boucher, and he was born September 9, 1893, in St. Damien-de-Brandon, Québec. Following a trip out West by his father in 1904, Irénée came to Willow Bunch in 1909, along with his brother Léopold. Irénée's grandmother, on the paternal side, was a sister of the famous Jean Louis Légaré, which largely explains their coming to Willow Bunch. Irénée soon took out a homestead, the NW 1/4 of Sec. 33, T. 5, R. 27, W2nd, on September 18, 1911. He received his patent on March 12, 1915.

Theirs was not a very long courtship, and Irénée and Corinne were married in Willow Bunch on January 14, 1919, while Corinne was still 18, going on 19 years. They first lived in the house that he had built, with the help of his dad, on the SW 1/4 of Sec. 28, T. 5, R. 27, W2nd, which land he had obtained from Nazaire Légaré in exchange for his "homestead." This land was two miles east and one mile north of Willow Bunch, and they lived there until 1924 when Irénée's health problems made it necessary for them to lease the farm and move to town.

Their first residence in town was in a house then owned by Irénée's cousin, Donat Boucher (occupied in 1996 by Armand Lalonde). For the first six years in town, he helped his father operate a dairy business. In 1930, after the death of his brother Léopold's first wife, they moved into his house (occupied in 1999 by Sheldon Rood). That same year, Irénée, with the help of his father, started a dairy business of his own.

In 1934, with his health on the mend, they moved back to their farm where Irénée remained until he sold the farm in 1946. In the interim, along about the time Corinne gave birth to her last child, disaster struck! She had only been back home for one or two weeks when she developed an infection, as a sequence of the baby’s birth, and was hospitalized in Assiniboia, Sask. Even so, though such a development was not then uncommon (due to the very limited advancement of medical science in that era) the infection was unwittingly allowed to spread and quickly claimed her life. Although she had everything to live for, Corinne Granger (née Bonneau) passed away prematurely on the 22nd day of December, 1938, in Assiniboia, at the age of 38 years, eight months and 11 days. Her death proved to be quite a strain on Irénée, as they were a very close couple.

Irénée later built a house in the town of Willow Bunch, in 1948, and earned his living by operating a shoe repair shop until he retired in the late 1950s; he also repaired swather canvases and the like. Only in the last several years before his death did he succumb to alternately staying with one or another of his children. Then, after a brief illness, Irénée Granger passed away on March 26th, 1973, at the age of 79, in the Assiniboia Union Hospital, a man who was truly at peace with himself and with the Lord.

Although they raised their large family in the "dust bowl" during the "Dirty Thirties", and were therefore never wealthy but quite often penniless, Irénée and Corinne are remembered by their children and, it is expected, also by all others who knew them, as a happy couple, devoted to each other, their family, their Christian faith, and their friends and neighbours. They are both buried in the Catholic Cemetery east of Willow Bunch.

Their eleven children, five daughters and six sons, were all born in a private home, attended by a Midwife, and all went to school in the Sacred Heart Convent in Willow Bunch.

ANITA, born in 1919, married Charles Mathieu October 27, 1942, in Willow Bunch. They have three children, Gisèle, Laurent (deceased March 27, 1999), and Louis.

ROGER, born in 1920, married Irène Labbé October 24, 1950, in Radville, Sask. They have four children, Denis, Robert, Larry, and Gerald.

BIBIANE, born in 1922, married Arthur Henley March 16, 1951, in New Westminster, B.C. They had two children, Karen, and Richard (deceased October 25, 1975, at the tender age of 19).

ROCH, born in 1923, married Mabel Jerome on October 29, 1947, in Willow Bunch. They had four children, Kenneth (deceased July 28, 1952), Linda, Ernest, and Deborah. The latter three have children.

RENÉE, born in 1924, married Léonard Bourdages (deceased September 25, 1981) on October 7, 1946, in Willow Bunch. They had four children, Dianne, Doraine, Fernand (deceased May 18, 1973), and Claude (deceased October 1, 1996).

GABRIELLE, born in 1926, remained single. She received her education at Sacred Heart Convent in Willow Bunch and Collège Mathieu in Gravelbourg, Sask., then went on to graduate from St. Paul Hospital School of Nursing in Vancouver, B.C., in 1950. The next 15 years were spent working as a Registered Nurse, nine of which were spent at the Willow Bunch Union Hospital. Furthermore, Gabrielle obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree, with a major in psychology, from the University of Saskatchewan Regina Campus, and graduated in 1966. She then went to work for the Government of Saskatchewan, Department of Social Services, and worked in various capacities until early retirement in 1987. She is now retired in Willow Bunch.

ANDRÉ, born in 1928, married Margaret Rose Wilson June 9, 1962, in Maillardville, B.C. They have three children, Corinne, Trudy, and Todd.

GILLES, born in 1929, married Patricia Maine February 15, 1957, in Claybank, Sask. They now reside in Moose Jaw, Sask., and have three grown children, Patrick, Maurice, and Michel.

ROLLAND, born in 1930, married Anita Desjardins (Paul) May 26, 1962, in Moose Jaw, Sask. In their family are four children, Maurice (Paul), Joanne (Paul), Pauline, and Gisèle.

GUY, born in 1934, married Elaine Phyllis Steele on September 21, 1963, in Maillardville, B.C. They have three children, Ronald, Kevin, and Kyle.

BERNADETTE, born in 1938, married Robert Prouty July 7, 1967, in New Westminster, B.C. They have one child, Brian.

Recherches : Bonneau Louise (1969 - )*ref.540