PEOPLE OF BELL ISLAND
​S
YVONNE E. SAUNDERS
1942-2022
Created by Gail Hussey Weir
February 2023
​Yvonne E. Saunders (1941-2022): Bank Manager. She was born East #1, Bell Island, on August 22, 1941 to Maggie (nee Rose, 1921-2009) and Eric Saunders (1916-1981), a driller/blaster with DOSCO (see above). She attended Jackson Memorial School and, at age 11, contracted Rheumatic Fever, which left her with a diagnosis of a heart murmur. As a consequence, she was prohibited from playing with children or partaking in any sporting activity. While in hospital in St. John's for two weeks, her bed was located in a ward with the elderly as she was not permitted to be with other children. Because of her illness, she missed six months of school, which resulted in her having to repeat a year. Returning to a classroom of unfamiliar, younger students was difficult. Then when she was 13, her youngest sibling was born. Complications of the birth meant her mother had to spend time in hospital and Yvonne, being the eldest daughter, was thrust into the role of "mother" to her five siblings. She was responsible for taking care of them, cooking meals, baking bread and doing the laundry and house cleaning. The prevailing thought of society at that time was that girls did not need an education because they were only going to get married and would stay home to look after their husband and raise children. Over the next five years, Yvonne struggled to attend school and found it even more of a challenge to find time to study. In spite of everything, she did enter the new St. Boniface Regional High School when it opened in 1958. Another expectation of the times was that when young people reached age 16, they took whatever paying job they could find and would start paying "room and board" to augument the family income, so Yvonne began working part-time at Charles Cohen's dry goods store on Town Square. Between that and helping at home, there was little time for study and, as a result, she did not complete Grade Eleven. Like many of that age and under those circumstances, she left home as soon as possible.

On January 6, 1960, she left the relatively small community of Bell Island, where there was not one traffic light in sight, and went straight to downtown Toronto where, six days later, she was employed by TD Bank at the busy intersection of Bloor and Bay streets, and found herself having to contend with subways, street cars, trolleys, thousands of strangers and many traffic lights. While working there, she attended night courses at the University of Toronto and, over the course of 13 years, moved up through the ranks to work in Personal Loans. While in that department in 1973, she was training a young man who had no previous experience when she discovered that he was being paid more than she was. She decided it was time to change banks and took a job in Commercial Lending with the Royal Bank, where she was treated more equitably. When she was asked to manage a new branch that was under construction in 1977 in the Yorkville district of Toronto, she hesitated at first, before deciding to give it a try.  The Hazelton Lanes branch would cater to both business people and residents. Yvonne did some research on the needs of those in the area and the result was the first branch to offer longer business hours. She and her Administrative Officer had to wear hard hats at work for a long time due to construction until the official opening. The newspaper clippings attached illustrate the novelty of a bank that not only offered extended hours, but also one that was headed by a female manager.
​At the young age of 37, and after 18 years in Toronto, Yvonne was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Her doctors declared there was nothing more they could do for her and sent her home to die. She returned to Newfoundland to stay with her parents, who had moved to St. John's following the closure of the Wabana Mines. Then an amazing thing happened: after about a year of rest, she began to regain her health. She had enjoyed being a Jaycee with the Junior Board of Trade in Toronto and decided she would like to join the local St. John’s Jaycees unit as an outlet for her new energy as she prepared herself to go back to work. Unlike the Toronto Jaycees, which included both genders, the St. John's Jaycees was an all-male unit that did not welcome female members. When the St. John’s Jaycees hosted the Jaycees National Convention, Yvonne attended and met with the National President, who encouraged her to start her own unit for females. She went to Steve Herder, owner/publisher of the Evening Telegram, to learn how to write a press release and get coverage for planned events. Within seven months, the female Signal Hill Jaycees membership surpassed the male unit’s and had a very high profile in the community. They donated blood every month, introduced the National Youth of the Year Award, and organized Family Day in Bowring Park in January with clowns, free food and entertainment, all of which made the front page of the newspaper. They hosted the Regional Convention of Jaycees in their first year, during which Yvonne was awarded the International Senatorship Award, the Jaycees highest award for accomplishment, recognized world wide. Not only was hosting a regional convention in your first year unprecedented, so was the high number of regional and national awards they won. The next photo is of Yvonne accepting the charter for the first female Jaycees unit in Atlantic Canada. Below that is a photo of the first executive of the Signal Hill Jaycees with Yvonne as President.
​On April 12, 1980, a young and, at that time, unknown cancer victim named Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in St. John's, NL, to start his "Marathon of Hope" cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research and awareness. Jaycees across Canada had undertaken to support him in any way possible on his run and the relatively new Signal Hill Jaycees unit had been chosen for this role while he was in St. John's. They met him at the airport and were with him on the morning of the 12th at the water's edge when he made that now-famous dip in the Atlantic. By unhappy coincidence, Yvonne had recently discovered that she herself had cancer. In a post to the Terry Fox Run Facebook Page in 2013, Yvonne recalled that we took up a collection right there and presented him with his first donation together with our Jaycee crest. We then ran with him to City Hall for the official start of his run at Mile Zero. Many people gathered there with some local media and, following the reading of a proclamation by our Mayor, I was asked to say a few words. Ten days before Terry arrived in St. John's, I had been diagnosed with cancer. It was fearful, dreaded news. I wasn't used to speaking publicly without preparation but on this occasion I spoke from the heart. I had some understanding at that moment of what he had experienced. Virtually every word spoken, together with a photo of Terry and me, appeared on the front page of the Evening Telegram.
​In the photo above, Yvonne is seen on the right cheering as she and the other Jaycees and well-wishers give Terry a hearty send-off from 'Mile Zero' at City Hall as he begins his cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research.
​Yvonne's Terry Fox story continues: That was the beginning of many photos that would appear over the next many months. My term as President of the Signal Hill Jaycees ended May 1st allowing me free time to spear-head a fund-raising campaign for Terry. I solicited the help of numerous businesses in St. John’s and received tremendous support. Everyone arranged some kind of fund raiser. Even the Newfoundland Constabulary participated and raised a lot of money. They also provided men in their 'Dress Blues' at the annual Regatta that year to ‘man’ two drums for people to make donations. I arranged for frequent public presentations of funds and the Telegram was always very supportive in publicizing each event. These photographs were virtually the only ones in the news until he was close to arriving in Ontario and gaining National status. I had collected all of them over time, placed them in an album and presented it to Terry’s parents when they visited St. John’s. They were very happy to have these early photos and to know how much the people of St. John’s had done to support Terry.

Fortunately, I survived my cancer but Terry did not. However, Terry did more than ‘run across Canada’. He touched and influenced my life and the lives of hundreds of other people who met him or even just read about what he hoped to accomplish. He wanted to raise a million dollars so 'the hurting would stop.' He not only raised many millions of dollars, he inspired more people than we will ever know about. He gave people hope. We all know of his success in raising funds and that continues each year with The Terry Fox Runs. Terry will never be forgotten. The world is a better place because of his strength and determination and maybe one day, because of Terry, cancer will be eradicated. We can only ‘hope’.
​The Jaycees mandate was to provide leadership training and civic organization for people between the ages of 18 and 39. After organizing the Signal Hill Jaycees and serving as President during its very productive and award-winning first year, Yvonne had to bow out of the group because of the age restrictions. In the photo on the left, she displays the many awards they won in her short time with them. Below, Vice-President Bea Courtney presents Yvonne with a parting gift of a collage of photos of the Signal Hill Jaycees that had appeared on the front pages of the Evening Telegram ​during her tenure.
Having recovered from the original health scare that had brought her back to Newfoundland, Yvonne bought a home of her own and was just starting back to work at the Royal Bank in St. John's on a half-time basis when, as she mentioned above in her "Terry Fox Run" post, she learned that she had cancer. She had surgery in January 1981 and, while that went well, an undetected blood clot delayed her release from hospital by a week. She eventually recovered and resumed full-time work.

​One of the things Yvonne learned as President of the Jaycees was Parliamentary procedures in chairing meetings using Roberts Rules. When the local branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) was having problems holding onto board members due to lengthy meetings, they asked Yvonne if she would act as chair. Before long, she was Vice-President of that organization. Meanwhile, in her day job at the Royal Bank, she found that, unlike the Royal Bank in Toronto, the Newfoundland branch did not encourage the advancement of women. After two years of working in personal loans and mortgages, she felt bored and decided to take a year off. One of the companies she had been dealing with in her time at the bank was Regatta Ford. The owner had approached her on several occasions to set up and manage their leasing department. She had declined each time but, after a short break from the banking world, she decided to give Regatta Ford a try. It was there that she met her future husband, Bill Sinnott. He had had a long career as a car salesman but, by this time, he was on disability due to diabetes. He missed being at work, so continued to go in every day anyway. As Vice-President of the VON, Yvonne knew that their Chairman of Transportation needed assistance looking after their fleet of cars. Seeing Bill everyday looking lost without work, she got the idea of offering him the volunteer position. Bill would then meet with Yvonne for coffee to update her up on what was happening with the cars so that she could include the information in her report to the Board. Eventually, they began dating. After a year at Regatta Ford, Yvonne became disillusioned with the car leasing business and left. This was around 1983, which turned into another busy year of volunteering for her. She became President of the VON just when they had to go to arbitration with the Nurses Union. The VON could not meet the union's demands, resulting in major layoffs and the loss of service to many residents. All her civic activities with the Jaycees, and then the VON, seemed to lead naturally into her involvement with the City of St. John's in making arrangements for the Royal Visit of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in June 1983. This was not all of her volunteer activity though. She also served on the Board of the MUN Botanical Garden as Treasurer, served on the Board of the YMCA, and organized the first "wedding conference" held at Hotel Newfoundland. This conference was designed to provide wedding couples with the opportunity to make contacts and obtain information on all aspects of planning a wedding.
​The Royal visit of Prince Charles and Princess Diana to Newfoundland in June 1983 coincided with that year's St. John's Day Celebrations. Yvonne was Vice-Chair of Events for the City's Celebrations Committee. She was in charge of the June 24th event at the track and field facility next to the Aquarena, where the Royal Couple had been scheduled to do a "drive about" on the track but, when they arrived, they decided to do a walk-about instead. The event ended with a receiving line of dignitaries. Yvonne was at the end of the line, still holding her Walkie-Talkie when she met them. ​In the photo on the right, she is being presented to Diana, who commented to her that, "we're both wearing birds," by which she meant that they both had feathers in their hats! 
​​The photo was taken by the Royal Couple's team, who took photos of everyone the couple met. 
Bill and Yvonne Sinnott the day after their wedding in 1985. 
​Yvonne married Bill Sinnott of St. John's in 1985. She worked on a diet to get his blood sugar under control, but then it was discovered that he had cancer. After less than five years of marriage, and many months of watching him fade away in hospital and Palliative Care, he died on February 11, 1990.

In 1991, Yvonne left Newfoundland again. In search of a milder climate, she drove a motor home across Canada to make a new life for herself on Vancouver Island. Ten years later, she married retiree Alan Withington of BC. A few weeks after the wedding, her new husband learned he had terminal cancer. He opted out of normal treatments and died two years later in 2002.

For 28 years after leaving Newfoundland in 1990, Yvonne enjoyed spending winters in Mesa, Arizona and summers on Vancouver Island. She was an active volunteer in both places. After participating in her church's grief group in Arizona, she returned to BC, where she founded and, for 14 years, facilitated her church's weekly Knox Grief Group. She led a food drive in Mesa for 8 years and introduced the food drive to her BC church in 2004; it continues today. She served on the Board of the Mesa Computer Club and the church Mission Committee for many years. She felt her greatest accomplishment in Mesa was leading a fund-raiser to purchase two buses, with special features for seniors with disabilities, to drive them to and from church. She drove the bus herself for years. For 15 years in BC, she volunteered with the RCMP's Citizens on Patrol (COPS), now called Oceanside Safety, and provided historical tours at Milner Woodland Gardens. On August 22, 2016, she decided to celebrate her 75th birthday by doing a skydive, which you can view by clicking:  https://youtu.be/u6CsIVXZ5RY. ​Yvonne Saunders-Sinnott died December 4, 2022 at age 81. She is buried next to her husband, Bill, in Forest Road Cemetery, St. John's, NL.