Museum Musings: Wedding Dress

By Kaydance Stammers

Norma Brown donated this beautiful wedding dress worn by her mother, Nellie May (Moore) Gripp. She was born in 1919, met and courted Leonard Gripp until they got married on December 29th, 1939.

Leonard Gripp was born at a farm home south of Oyen on September 1st, 1916. After attending school in Oyen, he began butchering with his dad and sold meat and homemade sausage. He also worked as a hired man on farms and hauled oil and gas from Calgary to Oyen for C.V. Johnson’s Garage. As well as all that, he worked at Jimmy Wong's restaurant to help supplement his income.

In 1939, he took over the Gripp family farm.

Leonard had a passion for curling and was especially good at baseball.

In 1937 to 1938, Nellie May took teaching training in Calgary at “Normal School.” When she returned to Oyen, she taught at Farming Valley School near Cereal. She taught full-time until 1940, when she moved to the Gripp Family Farm after marrying Leonard Gripp.

During their marriage, they had four daughters: Louise, Carol, Janet, and Norma. After many years of marriage, Leonard passed away from cancer in November 1976.

Nellie May’s wedding dress currently resides in the main building of the Oyen Crossroads Museum.

In addition to the 1928 car story in an earlier issue of The Echo, we would like to mention Ralph Wold donated the car he bought from Howard Haines in 1972 to the Oyen Crossroads Museum in 2024.

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