Wayne Ilmari HALME

Funeral services for longtime Hearst resident and Second World War Army veteran Wayne ‘Väinö’ Ilmari Halme, 78, of Alexandra St. were held July 13, 2002. He died July 11 at Notre-Dame Hospital following a lengthy illness. Born Aug. 20, 1923 in Parkano, Finland, he came to Sault Ste. Marie and later to Hearst in 1928. Before the war, he worked at the West store and after for a paper mill, Newaygo Timber Co. in Mead and Ryland for more than 20 years, Gosselin Lumber in Calstock, Selin Lumber Co., the Chalykoff store in Hearst, and eventually as a Hearst Ministry of Natural Resources warehouse clerk until 1993. “Wayne had a good head on his shoulders and did excellent work, and you could always count on him to help whenever help was needed,” longtime friend and Newaygo coworker William Sachowksy recalled during the service. During the war, Mr. Halme was stationed at CFB Borden as an infantry instructor, then at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he became a corporal, and then at CFB Dartmouth Nova Scotia and Victoria, B.C. He and Elsie Bryant were married, Sept. 11, 1944, in Hearst. Branch 173 Hearst Legion secretary from 1957 to 1993 and chair of the poppy fund, he also sat on the joint Anglican United Church board. He enjoyed reading, crossword puzzles, music, curling, hunting, fishing, watching TV, all-night jokefests, and the family cottage at Pivabiska Lake. Described by family as kind and gentle to all, patient “to a fault”, generous and a listener who never lost his temper or raised his voice, he was reknowned for his repertoire of jokes and stories. He was “accepting of life and of others, just the way they were,” daughter Judy Tanguay wrote for the service. “And at the same time he asked so little of either. He accepted his life exactly as it was — with its joys and pains, its laughter and its sorrows...” Discussing the news at the kitchen table, “he made sure that I was the most informed kid in Hearst,” great grandson Bryant Fex said. He was also “a surrogate grandfather to many of the youngsters in the neighborhood.” Predeceased by youngest daughter Deborah Halme of Hearst in 1993, a brother Ray Halme of Thunder Bay and a sister Kathleen Halme-Kurki of Dorchester, he leaves his wife Elsie (nee Bryant) Halme of Hearst, daughters Judy (Jean) Tanguay of Ottawa and Joanne (Réjean) Gendreau of Montreal. Also surviving are a sister Ellen Kurki of Elliot Lake, granddaughter Liane and grandsons Jason, Nathan, Nicholas, Jordan and Justin, and great grandsons Bryant and Blaine. Following the Legion service held at the Salon Lafrance Funeral Home, Rev. Douglas Richardson — assisted by hospital chaplain Rev. Jean-Marc Pelletier — officiated the funeral service at St. Matthew’s-St Paul’s Anglican United Church. Granddaughter Liane Tanguay read one of Mr. Halme’s favorite poems, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Interment was at the Riverside Cemetery. Funeral director was the Lafrance Funeral Home. Commemorative donations can be made to St. Matthew’s-St. Paul’s Church or the Foyer des Pionniers Nursing Home.