A former Penhold resident who worked hard to help preserve the town's history passed away in late January.
Mary Cook was a contributor to Jim Mann's Penhold history book and worked with the Red Deer Archives to help preserve the town's history and the photographs of her father, Syd Wardle.
"She really did an awful lot to help save the history of the community," said Michael Dawe, curator of history at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery.
Cook's father was an elevator agent whose family moved to Penhold in 1936. Dawe explained Wardle took several "first class" photos of Red Deer, Penhold and Sylvan Lake that have made their way into archives and other historical displays.
"He was a very good photographer," Dawe said. Wardle's photography won several prizes in newspaper contests and one even took third place in a contest from New York.
Wardle took photos of life in Central Alberta, including shots of Highway 2A being constructed. Dawe said Wardle captured the picture of the first airman arriving at the Penhold base in the Second World War.
"The base was going to be a major training base for the war," Dawe said.
Cook "rightly" was enthusiastic about preserving her father's work, Dawe said, but also wanted to help preserve the history of her friends and neighbours from being forgotten.
"She helped save the history of other people too," he said. "She made very sure that what she knew would be saved."
Born in 1926, Cook attended school in Penhold for Grades 5 to 9 and went to Red Deer for high school. Cook left the Penhold area as a teenager and travelled and lived in different parts of the world and country, ending up eventually in Edmonton.
Dawe said despite her travels she would always show up to community events in Penhold.
"Her heart was still here," he said.
She helped Jim Mann gather material for his book, the Pioneer History of Penhold by doing interviews and gathering newspaper articles. She assisted with the centennial celebration for Penhold, Dawe said.
"Without her work, along with people like Jim Mann, a lot of the history Ö would have been lost," Dawe said.
Cook died Jan. 22 at a hospital in Leduc.
