September 13, 2006 Source: :
http://www.wlu.ca/news_update.php?grp_id=28&nws_id=2458&filter_type=update Edna Staebler passes away Edna Staebler, a long-time friend of Wilfrid Laurier University and one of Waterloo Region’s most beloved residents, died Tuesday night in her 101st year. Staebler, who was born Edna Louise Cress in Berlin (now Kitchener) on January 15, 1906, became a published writer in the late 1940s. For more than 20 years, she wrote for Maclean’s and Chatelaine, producing more than a dozen stories on topics as diverse as Mennonite culture and swordfishing. Her fame, however, came with her cookbooks, which contained not just recipes but stories that explored Mennonite life. The recipes themselves were "simple" and "unadorned," food writer Rose Murray said at Staebler’s 100th birthday party, held last January at Laurier (see photos), but the stories accompanying them were fascinating. "Her writing abilities made them so delightful." Ironically, Food That Really Schmecks, the cookbook/storybook that gave Staebler national fame when it was published in 1968, is being reissued this November by Wilfrid Laurier University Press after being out of print for many years. "Schmecks was the first Canadian cookbook to be more than just a collection of recipes," says Brian Henderson, director of Wilfrid Laurier University Press. "It not only suggested the flavours of meals with its lists of ingredients, but the flavour of being in a working kitchen, both her mother’s and her Mennonite friends’. It’s a style thing. The breezy, down-to-earth, perceptive way she’s able to grasp a situation, a character, in a few words. We really do look over her shoulder while the cook is at work. We are invited into these kitchens with their gossip, their tradition of passed-on story and recipe. It’s local history brought to life in little vignettes." Laurier President Bob Rosehart had never heard of Staebler when he arrived at Laurier from Thunder Bay in the mid-1990s, but she was a donor who in 1991 had created the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, which is administered by Laurier, and he was persuaded to pay her a visit at her home at Sunfish Lake, 10 minutes outside Waterloo. "I found her very engaging and easy to talk to," Rosehart recalls, "but it was hard to stay on topic. She had an amazing rotating door of visitors." Indeed she did. You could say that Staebler’s hallmark was her incredible ability to attract people who would become her lifelong friends. Young, old, male, female—it didn’t matter. Sandra Woolfrey, a Laurier graduate who became director of WLU Press, remembers meeting the "woman whom I consider of the most important women in my life." The two met when Staebler came for a tour of the Press facilities, and she said to Woolfrey, "I would like to get to know you. Give me a call some time." "This," Woolfrey recalls, "was the first thing I learned from Edna: that we could actually approach people and tell them that we would like to know them. I was so impressed with her directness that I called soon after and arranged to visit her." Woolfrey met with Staebler at Staebler’s Sunfish Lake home, and left with two manuscripts. "Since WLUP is a publisher of scholarly books, I took the manuscripts with me just to humour her," says Woolfrey. Then she began to read them. One was not very interesting, but the other—a collection of letters written by Staebler's sister, Ruby, to family members —was different. "I found them so charming and so compelling that I decided not to finish reading them that evening so that I could have the pleasure of finishing them over coffee the next morning. (They) presented such an interesting slice of life in Ontario in the 1950s that it seemed to me they should be of interest to academics." Haven’t Any News: Ruby’s Letters from the Fifties became the first book to be published in the Press’s new Life Writing series. Woolfrey, who now lives in Quebec, has written to Staebler every week, without fail, for years. Receiving those letters was "a cheery, cheery moment for her," says Kathryn Wardropper, a friend of Staebler’s for almost three decades and one of four people at Staebler’s bedside when she died. "I met her in 1978," says Wardropper. "I was a member of the women’s committee of Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, and chair of the floats." Wardropper, a feminist, had no intention of putting busty blonde fräuleins in dirndls on the floats. Instead, she looked for successful women—doctors, lawyers, writers and such. It was a rainy day. Staebler, then 72, wore a black-and-white tweed coat and felt hat. She carefully climbed to the top tier on her float and had the time of her life. "She waved to everyone like she was queen," says Wardropper. One of Wardropper’s favourite memories of Staebler involves visiting her at Sunfish Lake with Woolfrey. "Edna never turned on the lights as it got darker. She would sit there and let darkness come. "That evening, a storm came in. We watched it play on the water. It was an amazing electrical storm, and the air turned that mustard yellow. We sat in the dark, telling stories and talking to each other. It’s a night I still remember." What made Staebler so special to so many people? "Edna was very kind and very gracious and non-judgmental," says Wardropper. "She was willing to talk about anything," says Rosehart. "People were fascinated with her. She was also a very positive role model for women; she had networks all over the place." She also baked Rosehart muffins (blueberry was his favourite), and the two joked between themselves that her muffins, which he savoured, were "the president’s choice." Woolfrey, who has given considerable thought to her friendship with Staebler, said Staebler had a "profound sense that she was surrounded by beauty that sustained her, and the peace that she found in that is, in part, what made her so special to those of us who knew her in writing or in person. She succeeded in making us see and feel the magic moments that she experienced. "In Edna’s personal sense of spirituality, it was not just the natural world that was a beautiful place; its beauty included its inhabitants. She was incredibly tolerant and curious about people of all kinds, and reserved her indignation and her battles for those in authority, such as publishers, university administrators and politicians, whom she felt were not being fair to her projects or to the natural environment. "The second thing that Edna taught me was to try to be more tolerant of people and to only become engaged in those battles that really matter. Edna was tolerant even at her own expense, finding the best in everyone." When Laurier threw a 100th birthday party for Staebler last January, more than 500 people attended, some from as far away as Vancouver. Staebler was particularly delighted that the family of the late Pierre Berton—her first editor at Maclean’s—attended the festivities. In addition to the Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Staebler endowed bursaries at Laurier in the names of her great friend Gerald Noonan (a former Laurier English professor), George Blackburn (a winner of her non-fiction award) and Rick Playle (a former Laurier biology professor). "Edna was a great believer in the value of writing and a supporter of the writing of others," says Henderson. "She believed writing shaped the life. And in her writing, her open and honest character always shines through." In 1984, Laurier awarded Staebler an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree, and in 1996 she was awarded the Order of Canada. In honour of Staebler, Laurier’s flags were flown at half-mast beginning Wednesday. A memorial service to commemorate Staebler’s life will be held at Laurier on Sunday, October 1, from 2 to 4 P.M. in the university's Senate and Board Chamber. All are welcome. Barry Ries
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