Beattie, James R.

James R. Beattie 1900 - 1989

James was born in Montreal in March 1900 - so we always knew how old he was! He was the youngest of four, preceded by brothers William and Donald, and sister Jessie Bertram. He spent his career in real estate.
He loved living in Chambly, where he had a large garden with lawns, grape vines, vegetable and flower gardens, six apple trees and a pond for his goldfish in the summer. He enjoyed fishing in the rapids behind the house, and in the fall, shooting woodcock in the woods nearby. In the winter, he used to shoot foxes, and there were a number of fox fur blankets in our Tadoussac house.
James was first attracted to Tadoussac because it is hay fever free. He had absolutely no interest in using a racquet to hit a ball back and forth over a net stretched between two posts, nor using a club to hit a little white ball around a mowed field. His love was fly fishing; speckled trout in his secret lakes, sea trout in the Saguenay with Lewis Evans, and salmon fishing on the Saint Marguerite River. And he always wore a tie (usually a Macfarlane tartan tie, same one he wore gardening and going to church) and jacket, even while gardening, fishing and picnics on the beach. His trademark was the jeep, an old Land Rover which he drove everywhere. He often had a cigarette or cigar stub in his mouth, but never inhaled. (In 1919, a doctor advised him to try smoking to help his asthma.)
He was treasurer of our Tadoussac Protestant Chapel for a number of years. James and Jack Molson spend endless hours planning and creating the Canadian Heritage of Quebec. They bought the red brick house beside Tadalac which became the Molson-Beattie Museum, and is now a summer rental property.
For many years, he drove down to Tadoussac for May 24th and Thanksgiving extended weekends. He loved it so much here that he never wanted to travel anywhere else. He died in Montreal in the early summer of 1989 at the age of 89.


Bottom Photo Trevor Evans, James Beattie, Stockwell Day on Lewis Evans's Yawl "Bonne Chance" in the 1960's