Elizabeth Gwen Bennett Buckner
December 27, 1925 – June 23, 2024
Gwen decided to leave this earthly place when her fun tank finally hit empty. Gwen was born on an undoubtedly cold December day in Lougheed, Alberta, Canada in 1925 to Aleck and Wilhelmina Whyte (nee Aitcheson). She spent her early childhood on the prairie before moving to Haney, B.C. There she spent some time living in a boarding house while her parents were away working in the logging camps where Aleck was a mule skinner and Willa a cook.
After graduating from Coquitlam Secondary School, she attended St. Paul’s Hospital School of Nursing in Vancouver. The first job she accepted was a nursing position on the island of Bermuda. There she met a dashing young airman named Tommy, a hurricane hunter for the US Air Force. They married and her first two children (Mike and Mark) were born there. Later the family was transferred to Sacramento, CA. There her third son (Matt) was born. Tragically in 1962, her husband Tommy was killed in a plane crash during a test flight. Now a U.S. citizen, Gwen moved the boys to Bellingham, WA to be closer to her family. She continued her nursing career at St. Joseph Hospital, where she would work for the next 30 years.
In 1970 she met and married George Buckner, a Blaine-born forest ranger who joined Gwen in her appreciation of dancing and card nights. George and Gwen spent their winters snowbirding in the Southwest and traveled with family to Hawaii and Mexico. In retirement, Grandma Gwen was often found with her five grandchildren playing cribbage, watching Lawrence Welk or leading trips to Barter’s Drive-In for hamburgers. In 1990, Gwen and George moved to Birch Bay Village where she made countless friends and found great joy in attending social club activities, dance and exercise classes, card games and Mahjong dates.
Always physically active, Gwen was an ice skater, skier, golfer, an accomplished swimmer and snorkeled well into her 80s. In her 90s she learned to tap dance and was a volunteer at Stafholt nursing home in Blaine to help the “old people”- most of whom were much younger than her. Fiercely independent, Gwen was able to live in her home (with a little help) right up to a month before passing, when she began to need additional care.
She was preceded in death by her two husbands, sister Barbara, brother Duff and likely all her contemporaries. She is survived by her sons Mike Bennett (Carolyn), Mark Bennett (Shirley) and Matt Bennett (Carrie) along with grandchildren Austin (Kira), Renee, Holly (Ian), Brett (Athena), Karena (Josh) and six great-grandchildren. The family would like to thank the staff at Avista Senior Care Center and the home healthcare providers. Most of all, a HUGE THANKS to all her friends, her “Guardian Angels,” as Gwen called them, both inside and outside Birch Bay Village. These “Angels”, transported her to appointments, shopped for her groceries and supplies, checked on her wellbeing and were a source of great friendships for many years.
A Celebration of Life will be held on September 21, 2024, from 2–5 p.m., at the Birch Bay Village Club House. If you are not a BBV resident and wish to attend, please RSVP to 360-739-3371. In lieu of flowers, donations in Gwen’s name can be made to the Birch Bay Village Service and Social Club (BBVSSC) at 8055 Cowichan Road, Blaine, WA 98230.
