By TOM GODFREY
Hard-working Ann Marie Curtis was the first female reeve of Long Branch and is best remembered for a beautiful waterfront park that is named in her honour.
Curtis served as the reeve of Long Branch from 1953 to her retirement in 1962, and was the only woman to hold that job. She was also a member of Metro Toronto Council and the first woman on its executive.
A proud housewife, she worked hard to improve the life of residents and oversaw improvements to infrastructure in Long Branch as the installation of storm sewers, the paving of roads and planting of crab apple trees to help curb floods.
One of seven children, she was raised in St. Louis, Miss., and later moved to Long Branch, got married to husband Bryce, and worked in a hat factory.
Her friends swore her “political commentary was as crusty as the scrumptious apple pies she loved to bake.”
Curtis became involved in activism after seven teachers in the community were fired. She became president of the Home and School Association and successfully lobbied for more kindergarten classes.
She became frustrated that the incumbent reeve was “rubber-stamping’ the decisions of others and ran against him and won the position.
Curtis made a name for herself during Hurricane Hazel, which struck in October 1954, killing seven people and leaving 700 evacuated from their homes, trailers and streets.
Curtis was in charge of the relocation of flood victims and advocated for the conversion of a flood plain on which the devastated homes stood into parkland. Some 300 homes were demolished, along with the trailer park to create a 35-acre park.
The popular Curtis even delivered compensation checks personally to the flood victims.
She is still remembered for the Long Branch Arena, a new artificial ice rink which she opened In December 1962, despite issues with funding.
Curtis retired in 1962 and moved with Bryce to Flesherton. There she served for six years as secretary of the Association of Mayors and Reeves in Ontario, where she was a former president.
Curtis advocated in 1962 for the amalgamation of Long Branch with neighbouring villages Mimico and New Toronto, but the proposal went to the Ontario Municipal Board, which left the villages in place. The Ontario government amalgamated the three communities into Etobicoke in 1967.
She died in 2006 at the age of 94. The park that was destroyed by Hazel was named Marie Curtis Park in her honour in 1959. It is marked by a plaque and cairn. To top it off she was inducted into the Etobicoke Hall of Fame in 1988.