Ken Botham was born in 1918 in Toledo ON. He enlisted in the RCAF in 1941 in Ottawa at the age of 23. In 1942 he was posted to Calgary where he met his wife, Dora (“Dot”) Sallis, and they married in 1944. Four veterans including Ken travelled from Calgary to the Wanham -Belloy AB district in 1949 to file on land from the Lassiter Project. Ken obtained S11-79-2-W6, and in later years he purchased an adjoining section. In the spring of 1950, Ken and Dot moved up to their homestead and put in their first crop. Ken purchased a Massey-Harris pull-type combine, the first one north of Belloy, that fall. Dot and Ken had 2 daughters: Naida and Carolyn Dene. Ken passed away at age 55 in December 1973, in Spirit River, after suffering a long terminal illness. Dot remarried to Charles Brissard, and acquired a son named Ken.
Source: Grooming the Grizzly pp. 276-280. Photo of Ken in uniform, and of family.
Grande Prairie AGS – Obituary Index
