1920–2005

Husband of my aunt

Ewart Usher was the son of Lawrence Stanley Usher (1891-1981) and Thelma Janet Richardson (1897-1974). He was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario on July 25, 1920.

As a young man, he was slender and handsome, 5 foot 11 inches tall with light brown hair and blue eyes.

Ewart and Betty, in the mid 1940s

He married Helen Elizabeth “Betty” Warner at Kew Beach United Church in Toronto on September 26, 1945. He was 25. She was 21. They would have one child, a boy.

Toronto Star, October 6, 1945, p 21 (the photo was taken by Len Quartermain, who was a professional photographer and married to Betty’s first cousin (on her mother’s side), Betty Lowden)

Ewart and Betty separated about 1950 and he moved to the United States, on July 27, 1950, taking their son with him.

Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, New York, 1902-1954. NARA microfilm publication M1480, 165 rolls. NAI: 4527447. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85; National Archives at Washington D.C

It appears that he filed for divorce there, because he married Patricia Ruth Annabelle Baker (1926-1999) in Albany, New York on December 26, 1950.

Ancestry.com. New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.
Original data: New York State Marriage Index, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY.

She was the daughter of Stanley Grant Barker (1899-1954) and Theresa Ann Miller (1904-1936) of North Bay, Ontario.

Patricia Barker in 1949 (University of Toronto, Torontonensis 1949, p 142)

Whatever divorce Ewart had obtained in the United States was not valid in Canada. Under Canadian law, he remained married to Betty until September, 1954, when she was finally successful in divorcing him.

Item in the Toronto Globe and Mail, September 24, 1954, p 31, showing that Betty’s divorce had been granted (this clipping was found tucked inside a photo album that had belonged to Betty, who must have drawn the arrow to signal her newly found freedom)

Ewart and Patricia lived in the United States, first in upstate New York and later in California, for the rest of their lives. They had four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom are living, and they raised Ewart and Betty’s son as theirs, making the family seven in all.

Patricia died on Valentine’s day, February 14, 1999. Ewart later married Marjorie Blanchard (1925-2013), the daughter of Ray Roland Blanchard (1899-1952) and Louise Lydia Ingelking (1899-1971) of California.

Ewart died in Laguna Hills, California on September 21, 2005.

Toronto Globe and Mail, October 5, 2005, p S10 (note that Ewart’s obituary mistakenly refers to Patricia Barker as his first wife. Betty was his first wife, of course)

You can also find this obituary here.