People Archives | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

Yoshiko Kobayashi and Mary Carter, 1940s

Yoshiko Kobayashi and Mary Carter sitting on pilings at the Okanagan Centre wharf.

Doris Gleed, 1930s

Doris Gleed rides her bicycle past the Okanagan Centre packinghouse.

Before the strike – Applebox belles at the loading dock, 1940s

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama.

Ivy Fallow

Ivy Malpass was born in 1907 in Armstrong, BC. As a teenager, she went to work as a summer girl at the East Kelowna packinghouse. Here Ivy met […]

Inez Kenney with three other belles at the Oyama packinghouse

Applebox belles at the Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1937. Inez is the second woman from the right.

Effie Smith, Alice Draper, Winnie Draper, Mary Draper, Winfield 1937

Applebox belles on their day off.

Alfred and Annie Lodge, Winfield

Alfred and Annie Lodge at Hanthorpe Ranch, Winfield, 1919. Alfred has just returned from the war.

Ikue Kitagawara

Ikue Kitagawara at 19 years old, Nagano-ken, Japan, 1917

Ikue Kobayashi, 1956

Ikue Kobayashi was just nineteen years old when she moved to Okanagan Centre with her new husband. For the first few years, Ikue worked for the Okanagan Valley […]

Nora Carter, 1936

Nora Carter at the Okanagan Centre packinghouse, age fourteen.

Inez Patterson Kenney

Inez Patterson Kenney Photo montage. Narrated by Bill Kenney, December 12th, 2015 Inez Patterson was born in 1917 in Manitoba. After moving first to Burnaby, BC, her family […]

Winfield packinghouse

The staff of the Vernon Fruit Union, Winfield, October 20th, 1955.