Centennial baby celebrates 50th birthday
- Katie Doke Sawatzky | June 29, 2017
Every year, when her birthday comes around, Kara ffoliott’s parents told her about the day she was born and how special it was.
“My mom was in labour for like 38 hours and they made her hold off so that I could be the first baby girl born in Canada,” she said. “I was born at 12:18 . She could have had me sooner, she said, and I was the 15th child so it was pretty special for them.”
ffolliott is the youngest child of a Métis family from Saskatchewan. She is also the first baby girl born on July 1, 1967, making her Canada’s first Centennial Baby girl. She still has commemorative coins from the Royal Canadian Mint and a centennial medallion with a certificate signed by then Secretary of State Judy LaMarsh.
But when it comes to national recognition, ffolliott and her siblings are quick to point out that another woman is officially recognized as the first Centennial Baby girl. That woman is none other than Pamela Anderson, who is originally from Ladysmith, B.C.
In her bio for the Canada Walk of Fame, Anderson’s birth is clocked at 4:08 a.m. a good four hours later than ffolliott’s recorded time of birth. ffolliott said she’s thought of writing them but has decided to let it be.
ffolliott was born Kara Marie Ott at Grey Nuns Hospital, now Pasqua Hospital, in Regina. She grew up in Fort Qu’Appelle and met her husband in high school. They married, lived in North Battleford and Saskatoon for a time, and then made the trek to Vancouver Island for his work. They now live in Abbotsford, B.C. and have two grown children.
When it comes to being the youngest of 15 children, ffolliott has no complaints.
“It was great,” she said. “It’s like you always had a friend. You always had somebody to play with. I was pretty spoiled I’d say. I had it a lot easier than the rest of them did. I spent a lot more time with my Mom, too. That was really good…I can’t imagine not having all those siblings.”
ffolliott wasn’t the only one of her siblings to move away. Some made their way to Alberta and one is in Nova Scotia.
While her siblings continually remind her that she’s a Centennial Baby, something ffolliott didn’t find out about until later in life was her Métis heritage, which can be traced by to the 1700s.
ffolliott’s maternal grandmother, Dora Venne, was born in 1901 in Batoche in what was then the Northwest Territories. Venne’s parents, Alexandre-Marie Venne and Aldina Marcelin were born in St. Norbert, Manitoba. Two Saskatchewan towns, Aldina and Marcelin, are named after Marcelin and her father. The Marcelins are buried near Muskeg Lake Cree Nation.
According to ffolliott’s older brother, James Ott, their father, George Ott, was going to become a priest and their mother, Vivian St. Laurent, a nun. Despite their age difference of 17 years, they met and fell in love and had 15 children.
“One thing we know about our family is that we were always loved,” he said. “My parents were such good people and so good with each other…like two peas in a pod.”
The significance of their Cree heritage, paired with ffolliott’s centennial birth, isn’t lost on Ott.
“If it wasn’t for a Cree woman, we would not exist here as a family,” he said. “But we are part of this country. We’re immigrants, but we’re not immigrants. We have been here.”
ffolliott would love to go to Ottawa to take in Canada 150 celebrations. Her older sister Agnes wrote a letter to Canada 150 organizers asking them if they were going to have Centennial Babies participate.
“She said, ‘My sister is the first Centennial Baby and I think you should honour her and so they sent me a parcel in the mail with momentums…and a note,” said ffolliott.
James Ott, who lives in Last Mountain Lake, thinks Kara should be able to take in the festivities in the nation’s capital.
“They should recognize her to go out to Ottawa,” he said.
But if that doesn’t pan out, ffolliott suspects her husband will plan something for her 50th. Although she’s a bit hesitant because she’s dealing with a common annoyance at this time of year.
“I keep telling him I don’t want to do anything because of my allergies,” she said. “I’d be happy to stay in town, but if I got a trip to Ottawa that’d be awesome. I’d deal with my allergies there,” she laughed.