SECOND GENERATION

6. Emma Lydia Maunu was born on 3 Nov 1894 in Estelline, SD, USA. She was buried in Jul 1979 in Dinsmore Cemetery SK. She died on 15 Jul 1979 in Kelowna BC.

She was married to William Perala on 8 Jan 1919 in Loreburn SK. The following from Ernest and Terry Mannu

Emma (Maunu) Perala

Emma Lydia Maunu was born in Estelline, South Dakota, on November 3, 1894. In 1909 she moved to the Loreburn district with her parents. There she eventually married William Perala. He had been born in Ilmajoki, Finland on November 4, 1893. His family had emigrated from Ylistaro to the United States and lived in South Dakota where they knew the Jaakko Maunu family. An unsubstantiated story related by Ernest Maunu indicates that at the beginning of World War I, Bill was drafted to serve in the US Army, but before he was to report for duty in 1913, he fled across the Canadian Border to the Loreburn/Glenside district. Fearing that US officials would solicit the help of the RCMP to track him down he changed his last name to his mother's maiden name "Perala" to avoid detection.

Bill and Emma married on January 8, 1919. Their first daughter, Ina, was born in 1918 and their second daughter, Hilja, was born on June 5, 1919. They lived on a farm near Dunblane (NW 31-26-7 W3rd) near Emma's parents' farm for many years where the girls attended Finland School. Sixty years later Hilja fondly remembered excursions by horse and buggy with her parents to the river for picnics and swimming, watching her mother play baseball, and watching both parents perform in plays held in the East Finn Hall.

In the spring of 1930, they sold their land to Cluney McPherson and on March 13, 1930 the family moved to the Coteau Hill district having purchased the Jack Atkinson farm. They began breaking that land the hard way, with horses, and worked for neighbours during harvest season to make extra money. The children attended Coteau Hill school and for recreation would go to dances, perform in programs, and participate in athletic events at the West Finn Hall.

William died in 1952 at the age of 58 years. Emma farmed the land for one year after William's death and then sold the farm to her son-in-law Lauri Honkala who had married Hilja on October 14, 1938. They had lived a short distance east of the farm and in the Roseduff area.

After that Emma lived in Dinsmore for a short period and then lived with Hilja and Lauri for ten years in Eston. In 1966 she moved to Saskatoon to live with Ina.

In 1977 Emma moved to Kelowna to live with Hilja and Lauri who had moved there in 1973. She died while staying at the Cottonwoods Extended Care Home in Kelowna at the age of 84 years on July 15, 1979. Her coffin was shipped back to Saskatchewan, and she was buried next to her husband in the Dinsmore Cemetery.

Based on "William and Emma Perala", Echoes of Coteau and "Wm. and Emma Perala", Looking Back both by Hilja (Perala) Honkala and information by Ernest Maunu.