Not just Lyndon Sheldon’s sister
This lady sure is a musical legend in the Townships and she is an amazing woman, mother and cook as well. Everyone refers to her as Lyndon Sheldon’s sister but she is an entertainer who can stand on her own.
She’s a pioneer who paved the way for many of today’s local female singers and it would be right to say that she was Lyndon Sheldon’s right arm when it came to music. Her name is Lois Sheldon Sanville, she is a singer who also plays flat top guitar and keyboard and more than anything, she loves people.
Lois Sheldon was born in May of 1939, to the third generation of Sheldons in the little village of Fitch Bay. She was the first of four children. She has three brothers. Daughter of Glen Sheldon and Mary Buzzell, Lois Sheldon didn’t have an easy relationship with her mother. “Despite that fact I must say that my mother sure could sing,” said Sheldon in a phone interview.
“At an early age, life was a struggle for me so at the age of 13 till I was 16, social services stepped in and placed me in Coaticook at an all-girls boarding school. At the time, it was called Bishop Mountain Hall, now it is the Coaticook
Beaulne Art Museum,” said Sheldon.
Some might think that this would take a toll on a young girl, but to her it came as a blessing. She found a lot of interesting things to learn and do there. Her being away from home made her find some inner peace.
“Those were some of the best years of my life! They put on lots of plays, auditions and I got to sing in the Coaticook church choir. Then at 16, I was put in a foster home in Lennoxville until I was 18 years old. I recall that I acted as their maid,” she remembered.
When she turned 18, she was out of the Welfare system so she went on to live with her loving aunt in Magog. One day, she decided to go home to Fitch Bay to visit her family. She had been six years without seeing her brothers.
“I was not very familiar with them but my brother Lyndon asked me if I could sing. I told him yes and sang the song “Please Help me I’m falling.” Then he said, “we’re going to start a band.” And so we did, we practiced four, five songs a week,” she said.
She was 19 when the band hit the stage at the Beebe Hotel. Lyndon on lead guitar, her late brother Gary playing rhythm guitar and her on snare drum.
“My Dad was so supportive and encouraging. He was our biggest fan! We were always playing music for weddings, private parties, festivals and most of the hotels around the area. We played at the Bretagne and Crystal Beach for over eight years in a row,” recalled Sheldon.
“The band was very professional and we were dressed the part with matching outfits, cowboy hats and boots. Country Music was always our priority and soon entertaining became second nature for me,” she stressed.
“When the crowd was too quiet, Lyndon would tell me to get off stage and go wake them up. So I would get down from the stage and single out one guy in the audience and sing “Hello Dolly” or do the Charleston dance just to get them all going. Some folks told Lyndon, you know your sister is crazy! So I guess I did my job waking them up,” she explained.
She soon became the person that Lyndon relied on to keep things going smoothly. Whether entertainment needed a boost, or a fight broke out at the hotel, she was taking on any role she had to at a given moment. During barroom brawls she was the protector of instruments. There were times she would swing the mic stand to make sure they didn’t get near the gear on the stage. She also remembered how a few times it got so bad, that they left the scene without even getting paid.