CONNECTED TO HISTORY
Kingsville icon Wigle dies
Alvira Irene Wigle left this world April 15 at the age of 89, but the prominent Kingsville resident will not be lost to history.
The retired librarian helped ensure that the John R. Park Homestead on the shores of Lake Erie would be preserved for public use. When a wrecking ball threatened Kingsville’s historic train station, Wigle fought to save the nowthriving landmark. She created the Kingsville-Gosfield Heritage Society and, as a founding member of the Kingsville Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee, she was a passionate advocate for the preservation of historic buildings.
Her last wish was to leave yet another legacy to the people of Kingsville. The eight-acre parcel of land on which her Wigle Grove Road home sits will be left to the Essex Region Conservation Authority, providing parkland that links to town land with a vista of Lake Erie.
While Wigle wanted to be quietly cremated following her death — no funeral, no flowers, no fuss — friends have organized a reception in her honour for Thursday afternoon at the Kingsville Legion. Donations to the Kingsville Historical Society, which operates the town’s archives, will be accepted.
With Wigle’s passing, the town has lost “its first advocate for the preservation of Kingsville’s built heritage,” said Marilyn Armstrong-Reynolds, who helped found the archives.
Wigle wasn’t originally from Kingsville, Armstrong-Reynolds said, but she embraced her adopted hometown.
Wigle was a native of Sandwich East Township where her father, John Brush, was a councillor. After graduating from Walkerville Collegiate in 1945, she worked at Windsor’s Carnegie Public Library.
She got her Bachelor of Library Science degree from McGill University, spent three years abroad in London, England, then returned to Windsor where she was the children’s librarian at Willistead Public Library. She was the head librarian at the Budimir branch when it opened in 1966.
“Alvira’s first love was not history, but books,” Armstrong-Reynolds said.
Wigle came to Kingsville in 1967 when she was hired as the first fulltime and fully qualified librarian at Kingsville District High School. It was there that she met her husband, Bill Wigle, a popular science teacher.
Bill’s family was among the area’s first settlers, United Empire Loyalists who came to British North America during the American Revolution. Alvira Wigle researched the family history, finding it closely entwined with the history of the town.
Wigle researched her parents’ history, too. “She was the keeper of the Brush family history,” said cousin Darl Edwards. “She was a wealth of knowledge,” Edwards said. “Not just history — she could talk for hours about everything and anything.”
Edwards’s mom and Wigle were first cousins. Wigle had a brotherin-law, Thomas, in the Toronto area, but Edwards, who lives in Kingsville, his wife and their two sons were the closest family she had. She had no children.
Aunt Vi, as the cousins called her, spent most holidays with her. She hosted family reunions at her home on the Wigle property long after her husband’s death.
When the Edwards took over hosting functions, Wigle always worried about staying too long. She had two beloved cats — Simon and Oliver — and she didn’t like them to be alone too long.
The cats now live with her longtime housekeeper.
Wigle revelled in the Carolinian forest that surrounded her home. She left it to ERCA knowing that was the best chance for its preservation.
She asked that her house — despite it having a new furnace and roof — be torn down and the property preserved.
The land used to be part of the Wigle family peach orchard and was known as the Grovedale Farm. A nod to that history, she has asked ERCA to call her bequest Grovedale Park.
The reception in Wigle’s memory will be held at the legion hall on Division Street South from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.