Margaret (Mickey) Schienle

With heavy hearts we say goodbye to an amazing woman who passed away on May 4, 2024. Those who are lucky to have known her have been entertained by her stories and have learned from her.

Born Margaretha in March, 1923, in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, she was the 10th child of 13 born to Isaac and Katherina Martens. She was the third Margaretha, as the first died at age 7 and the second in infancy; she proved to be the strongest and demonstrated that strength throughout her life.

Mickey's motto was "Nothing ventured, nothing gained". As a child, she was the Pied Piper, leading the neighbourhood children into all sorts of adventures, like getting everyone to play in the gravel pit until they got hungry and finally went home. All the parents wondered where their children were but knew who the culprit was.

Being fearless resulted in breaking her nose more than once; she was small but mighty and she wasn’t afraid to stand up to bullies for her siblings or herself.

One day, her dad was going into town and she wasn’t allowed to go, so when he left in his Model T, she jumped into the spare tire mount. She finally got so dusty that she started crying and her dad stopped the car. He slapped her for disobeying but she didn’t care, she was happy she got to go to town. She believed that getting a lickin’ was worth it, if you had fun all day long.

She was an entrepreneur at a very early age: she took the family’s chicken eggs to the store to trade for sweets, and set up an orange crate shop to sell the candy at a good markup to the neighbourhood children. She was punished when her mom found out about the scheme from the other parents.

When Margaret started school at age 7 she spoke no English. Her older brothers taught her that she was a “girl” so when the teacher asked for her name, Margaret said girl. The teacher thought she said Gertrude and called her that until Mickey’s brother stood up and corrected her. She stayed in school only until grade 7 because back then they thought that girls didn’t need an education.

Around 1938 the family bought a farm that eventually was parcelled out and became Martensville, and her dad built their house there. Farming was difficult and the family moved around, to St. Catharines and Port Dalhousie and back to Saskatchewan, and as Margaret became independent, she also was not afraid to pull up roots and move for a new adventure or a new job. They were snowed in at the farm so she said, “I’m out of here!”, waited for the snowplow to clear the road and went to the train station. “What’s the first train out of here?” It was Vancouver so that’s where she went, to work in the Boeing factory, and then at Boyd Brothers where she machined parts for guns, etc.

During the war, she went to Selective Service, and they sent her to Pickering to build bombs, putting TNT and cordite into the shells, missiles, antiaircraft and torpedo guns. After six months there, she moved onto a job building Lancaster bombers at Victory Aircraft. Since she was so petite, they put her in the tail section as a “Rosie the Riveter”, working with 3 other Margarets. When the boss called one of them, none would answer so he gave them all nicknames: Marg, Bubbles, Peggy and she got Mickey. She joined the Reserves, but didn’t like the rules so joined the Fort York armories where she learned to drive a 2 ton truck, leaving the rest of the girls behind on a training run until they caught up with her already having a beer in the cantina.

Mickey took a hairdressing course in Toronto at the Marvel School of Hairdressing, then got a job in the wholesale fur industry, first at Atlas Furs then White Furs. One day she stayed home so she could feel what it was like to be rich. The next day Mr. White demanded to know why she didn’t call him, and she said it would have spoiled the whole experience. All he said was, “I don’t know what to do with you!”

In 1959 she moved to LA where she first worked for a furrier. She then worked in a salon before buying her first shop in Santa Monica, Mickey’s House of Beauty, and later a second shop. Her memory was always so good that for the rest of her life, she remembered all her employees’ names and every country they were from.

Not satisfied with her grade 7 education, Mickey took night school courses at the local high school to get her diploma and then nursing pre-requisites but decided not to go into nursing because she had her own business.

While still in California, Mickey got her first driver’s license at age 40. The agent wanted her parents’ signature because he said lots of kids had fake ID.

After two decades in Santa Monica, Mickey moved to Westbank, then Oliver where, at age 70, she climbed Gallagher Mountain with friends. To celebrate her 80th birthday, she went parasailing.

She then moved to Kelowna, first in Balmoral then Hawthorn Park. She was always very independent, making most of her own meals and living with minimal assistance in her private apartment.

Mickey was the last of her generation. She was predeceased by her parents and all her siblings, 4 husbands and, having no children herself, is survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

Her wish was to be interred with other members of her family in Martensville. Graveside service will be at the Warman Cemetery August 13, 2024 at 11 a.m.