Alice Gervais promoted education, culture, and bilingualism across Saskatchewan for over half a century. Known as Sister Eliza of Mary, she was born in St-Thomas de Compton, Quebec in 1897. Gervais moved to Duck Lake, Saskatchewan with her family in 1905 and entered the Roman Catholic order, Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in 1914. Her career as a teacher took her to Duck Lake, Marcelin, Bellevue, Debden, and Prince Albert before she retired in 1970. She spent the next twenty years working as a librarian in the provincial house in Prince Albert. Gervais was awarded the Order of Canada in 1973. She died on March 16, 1996.
Canadian Plains Research Center