Our family gathered to honour my aunt Mary Sykes’s 100th birthday last month. Her nephew, Doug Wilson, and his wife, Pat, of Stouffville, Ont., donated an original Rex Woods painting to the RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina, Sask., to mark the birthday and honour his family’s farm roots in Sask-atchewan.
Wilson was the president of the Canadian division of the International Playing Cards Company, which commissioned the painting of an RCMP member and his horse in 1942 in addition to a painting of a marching RCMP member. Wilson retrieved the painting after the Ontario card plant shut down.
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Wilson also donated an unopened set of the cards printed for Canada’s centennial in 1967.
As a boy in 1955, Wilson became enamoured with the RCMP after touring the Regina RCMP Museum and training academy with the Sykes family.
Woods, who was born in England in 1902, has often been referred to as Canada’s Norman Rockwell. The Macdonald’s Lassie on the Macdonald’s Export A cigarettes is among his better known pieces.
He was an illustrator for Maclean’s magazine and he recreated the Fathers of Confederation painting that was destroyed in the Parliament Building fire of 1916. It adorns the Centre Block of the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Sykes parents, Fredrick and Willetta Wilson, moved to the Regina area from Ontario to join extended family already there.
Their home was destroyed in the 1912 Regina cyclone.
Her father died of cancer when she was 17 but her mother continued to farm with hired men. Sykes became a teacher and married Norman Sykes in 1937.
He served during the Second World War and returned to the farm, where the Sykes couple raised three sons.
The farm has remained in the family for more than a century.
Through the years, my aunt often brought the following slice to church teas and family gatherings.
Donated painting enshrines RCMP legacy
Cherry Banana Slice
- Base
- 2/3 c. butter 150 mL
- 3 tbsp. brown sugar 45 mL
- 1 1/2 c. flour 375 mL
- Mix butter and sugar, add the flour and mix well. Spread in a greased eight inch square (20 cm sq) pan, pressing firmly with hands to spread evenly. Bake at 325 F (160 C) for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
- Filling
- 3 c. miniature 750 mL
- marshmallows
- or 30 large marshmallows
- 18 red maraschino cherries, quartered
- 1 large banana, coarsely chopped
- Melt marshmallows in a pan over hot water or in a slow microwave, stirring often until completely melted and syrupy. Add cherries and banana pieces, mix, then quickly spread over the base. Let stand or refrigerate to cool. Don’t ice until completely cool or the icing will melt.
- Icing
- 1/2 c. butter 125 mL
- 3/4 c. icing sugar 175 mL
- 2 tbsp. boiling water 30 mL
- 2 tbsp. ice water 30 mL
- Combine the butter and icing sugar, add the boiling water and beat with an electric mixer until blended. Add the ice water and continue beating until fluffy icing will stand in peaks. Spread over the cake filling. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to serve.
- Source: Mary Sykes
