A COMMUNITY supporter who helped find a home for the local theatre, and served on city council has died.
Molly Nattress, 95, passed away Dec. 7 at her home in Wales.
“She was very active and going well until 92 and then she started to go downhill,” said longtime friend Margaret Sinjur.
She continued to live in her own home and her son John lived with her, said Sinjur.
Nattress was born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
She and her husband, Nick, ran a pub before the immigrated to Canada.
They had two sons, John and Bill, who both live in the U.K., and a daughter Pat, who lives in Calgary.
Her husband helped build Mills Memorial Hospital and then went to work in the mill with Bill McRae, said Sinjur.
Nattress worked at the Terrace Co-op until she retired.
The couple held many parties for the theatre and their friends in their home up on the bench, said Sinjur.
They had a dart board and a bar there and Sinjur and her husband would play darts with the Nattresses, alternating whose house they would play at each week.
“So there were lots of happy times spent in their house,” said Sinjur.
Dr. Geoff Appleton, who lived next door to the Nattresses, would come play darts at their place as did Dr. REM Lee, who lived next door on the other side, she said.
She helped get the building that became the Terrace Little Theatre, which was a church, said Sinjur.
Prior to that, the theatre performed in schools and halls, she said.
Nattress was elected to council for the 1980-1981 term and was sworn in Dec. 3, 1979.
“She was very active in the community,” said Sinjur.
“She just wanted to be involved,” said Sinjur about why Nattress ran for city council.
Nattress was re-elected for the 1982 term but resigned mid-term when she and her husband retired and moved to Wales.
She returned to Terrace a few times after she had left, which included celebrating her 80th birthday here, said Sinjur.