Cécile Dessaint Veilleux was born in Kingscroft in 1904, of a French-Canadian father and Swedish mother. She died in 2001 at the age of 96 and is buried in the Kingscroft cemetery.
Cécile married Josephat Veilleux on 4th June 1930 in the St. Wilfrid de Kingscroft Church. The couple became parents to 6 boys and 5 girls.
Mme Veilleux is remembered for her energy, her many manual skills and her bent for business. When her husband went off to work for the government at the end of the 1940's building bridges, it was she who took on total responsibility of raising the eleven children. All of them were allotted tasks and cared for the family farm – activities which taught them to help each other. Mme Veilleux was an expert needlewoman and knitted the childrens' socks, jackets, pullovers and mittens. She certainly was not afraid of work. She baked bread and canned the produce of her garden, as well as meat – so that they would have food when the harvest was over. She turned over the soil, sheared the sheep, and made soap for the family.
In 1940, when Josephat purchased their first car, she learned to drive so that she could go to local markets to sell maple syrup, sugar, and “tire.”
Mme Veilleux belonged to the Filles d'Isabelle, (Womens' branch of the Knights of Columbus).
In 1980, Cécile and Josephat celebrated their 50th marriage anniversary. Josephat passed away in 1989; Cécile in 2001.
Today, some of her descendants still live on the family property and in 2012, you could count her 11 children, 36 grand-children, 79 great-grand-children and 26 great-great-grand-children – fine people to whom she passed on her values and her feeling of self-worth. The Veilleux family is not about to die out!
Source: Anne Dansereau, Research Notes.