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Person

Mabel Roy

Also Mable Roy · Mabel Roy · Mabel E. Roy

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePerson
Borncirca 1892
Died1974-11-16
WithinBeaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Person
Born
circa 1892
Died
1974-11-16 · Beaver Island
Work
Secretary and treasurer, Beaver Island Historical Society · Secretary, Beaver Island Civic Association · Co-owner and operator, Roy's Replacement Parts and Service (37 years, before retiring to Beaver Island) · Past president, Blue Star Mothers (Pontiac, Michigan chapter) · Past Grand Chief, Fanny E. Tompkins Temple No. 41, Pythian Sisters (Pontiac, Michigan) · Past president, Knights of Pythias Recreation Center (Indian River, Michigan)
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
communityheritagegovernanceeconomyreligion
Within
Beaver Island

Summary

Mabel E. Roy (born circa 1892 – died 16 November 1974) served as secretary of the Beaver Island Civic Association from July 1959 and later as secretary and treasurer of the Beaver Island Historical Society, alongside co-owning and helping operate, with her husband A. J. Roy, Sr., the island’s Harbor Hills Golf Course, museum, and adjoining ice cream and sandwich stand from at least 1960 until the course was sold in 1971. Off the island, she had held office in three Pontiac, Michigan, fraternal and civic organizations. Her December 1974 obituary describes her as 82 years old, the mother of four surviving children, and, with her husband, the co-owner and operator of Roy’s Replacement Parts and Service for 37 years before the couple retired to Beaver Island. A state recreation site later named in her and her husband’s honor spells her name “Mabel,” the form used in her own fuller obituary; an earlier, shorter Beacon notice and a later Charlevoix Courier recollection instead spell it “Mable.”

History

Civic Association secretary (1959)

In July 1959, the Beaver Island Civic Association secured “Mrs A. J. Roy” as its secretary, replacing Dorothy McGregor, who had gone on sick leave; Skip McDonough had filled the post temporarily in the interim. The Beacon credited BICA president Archie LaFreniere Jr. with persuading her to take the job, and used the occasion to thank the Roys for being “very Civic minded” and giving “of their time, energy and money to make the Island a better place to live.”1 Fifty years later, the Beacon’s own retrospective column recounted the same appointment from its July 1959 issue, without adding further detail.2 No source held here gives an end date for Roy’s tenure as Civic Association secretary, which is a distinct office from the Historical Society secretary-treasurer post she is recorded holding at her death fifteen years later.

Beaver Island golf course and museum work

A September 1958 Beacon notice reports a “Mini Wuzz Golf Course,” sponsored by the island Historical Society, “now in operation under the name of Harbor Hills,” without naming an operator.3 The earliest source held here naming Mabel Roy in direct connection with the course is a June 1960 notice: “A.J. AND MABEL ROY have returned for the summer and have their golf course all primed up for the season,” with “the Historical Museum…also open.”4 The course stood in the rear of the Mormon Print Shop, per an April 1960 notice directing museum visitors who found the front door closed to “the attendant at Harbor Hills…course” there.5 By August 1961, Roy and her husband had opened the Harbor Hills Golf Course, the Historical Building and Museum, and a sandwich and ice cream stand for the season.6 That October, an item on a Civic Association teen party reported “Mrs. A. J. Roy donated cookies” and “The Harbor Hills Golf Course donated chocolate ice cream.”7 A Charlevoix Courier recollection of island childhood, published years later, remembers “Harbor Hills Miniature Golf Course run by A.J. and Mable Roy,” where children could play a round and buy an ice cream cone.8 In September 1964, Roy won a Zenith transistor radio as the door prize at a museum fundraising event.9

An unsigned April 1971 Beacon notice thanked customers “over the past 12 years” on behalf of “the owners of Harbor Hills Golf Course” and welcomed incoming owners “Mr. and Mrs. Richard Guarino”; it does not name the outgoing owners, but the twelve-year span and the absence of any other documented operator of the course between 1960 and 1969 are consistent with the sale ending the Roys’ operation of the business.10 The Roys continued to divide their year between the island and the mainland after the sale: a January 1971 “Gone for the Winter” roster lists “A. J. & Mabel Roy” among departing island residents, as does a similar list from December 1972.1112

Roy went on to serve as secretary and treasurer of the Beaver Island Historical Society, the organization her husband helped found by buying the island’s former Mormon Print Shop in 1957 to save it from demolition; her own obituary is the source for her Society office, not the print-shop purchase, which named only her husband and Russell P. Hoffmann as buyers.1314 A 2004 Beacon retrospective called the couple “cofounders of the Historical Society,” a broader characterization than her own 1974 obituary’s “secretary and treasurer,” and a separate 2004 retrospective column called her its “first secretary and treasurer”; both are thirty-years-later recollections rather than contemporary records, and neither is adjudicated against the other here.1516

Accident and death

In September or October 1974, Roy and her husband were in an automobile accident near their Beaver Island home; she sustained broken fingers, was not hospitalized, and recuperated at home.17 About a month later, Mabel E. Roy, 82, of Beaver Island and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, died on November 16, 1974, at the Bloomfield Hills home of her daughter, Mrs. Byron (Arciel) Wyatt.13 The Beacon’s initial, shorter November notice reported her death under the spelling “Mable Roy” and said the couple had returned to the island to close their cottage just three days before her passing;18 a fuller obituary printed the following month, under “Mabel E. Roy,” added that she was survived by four children — Donald, Richard, Arciel, and A. J. Roy, Jr. — thirteen grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.13

Offices and memberships

The December 1974 obituary lists Roy as a past president of the Blue Star Mothers in Pontiac; “Past Grand [Chief]” of the Fanny E. Tompkins Temple No. 41 in Pontiac (the source text places a stray parenthesis around “Chief,” an apparent transcription artifact, but the fraternal office is otherwise legible); a past president of the Knights of Pythias Recreation Center in Indian River; and a member of the Pine Hill Congregational Church of Orchard Lake and of the Beaver Island Christian Church.13 It requested memorial contributions to the Christian Church or the Historical Society.13 On June 7, 1975, the Historical Society held a testimonial dinner honoring A. J. Roy and “the late Mabel Roy” for their work founding the Society and developing the museum, at which it was announced that a proposed Heritage Park would be named for the couple.19

Significance

Roy is documented as an officer of two of the island’s civic institutions — the Civic Association from 1959 and, later, the organization that became the Beaver Island Historical Society — and as a co-operator, for over a decade, of one of the island’s longer-running tourist businesses, alongside club and lodge offices held in Pontiac. A state recreation site, the Mabel and A. J. Roy Heritage Park, has carried her and her husband’s names since 1975.

Open questions

  • Roy’s maiden name, birth date, funeral arrangements, and place of burial are not established from the sources held here; “circa 1892” is derived only from the obituary’s stated age of 82 at her November 1974 death.
  • Whether “Mabel” (her own fuller obituary, the 1975 testimonial report, and the Heritage Park’s current name) or “Mable” (the initial November 1974 Beacon notice and a later Charlevoix Courier recollection) is the spelling she herself used is not resolved; both are recorded here as attested variants rather than one being treated as an error.
  • Whether “Roy Sales & Service,” the business named in her husband’s own March 1976 profile, and “Roy’s Replacement Parts and Service,” the business named in her own December 1974 obituary — both run for 37 years — are the same concern under two names is not established.
  • No source held here gives the identity of any business partner other than her husband, or a business address or registration record.
  • How long Roy served as Civic Association secretary, and whether she left that post before or after taking up the Historical Society secretary-treasurer role, is not established here.
  • Whether “the owners of Harbor Hills Golf Course” thanked in the April 1971 sale notice were in fact A. J. and Mabel Roy is not stated in that notice itself; it is inferred here from the absence of any other documented operator, and should be treated as probable rather than established.
  • Whether the couple’s later years were spent primarily on Beaver Island or in Bloomfield Hills is not resolved: the December 1974 obituary gives Bloomfield Hills as the place of death, while Beacon “Gone for the Winter” rosters through at least December 1972 describe them as seasonal, not year-round, island residents.

See also

Sources

See the sources: block above for full citation and provenance detail.

Footnotes

  1. Beaver Beacon, July 1959 (printed masthead “July 1952”), “WORTH WAITING FOR,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1959-07_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  2. Beaver Beacon, July 2009, “Fifty Years Ago” retrospective column, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/2009-07_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, September 1958, untitled notice, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1958-09_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  4. Beaver Beacon, June 1960, untitled notice, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1960-06_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  5. Beaver Beacon, April 1960, untitled notice, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1960-04_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  6. Beaver Beacon, August 1961, “Summer Is In Full Swing,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1961-08_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  7. Beaver Beacon, October 1960, untitled notice, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1960-10_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  8. “What Can Island Kids Do?”, Charlevoix Courier, bound 2000 volume, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/charlevoix/markdown/charlevoixcourie2000unse.md. ↩

  9. Beaver Beacon, September 1964, untitled notice, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1964-09_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  10. Beaver Beacon, April 1971, “Thank You,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1971-04_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  11. Beaver Beacon, January 1971, “Gone for the Winter,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1971-01_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  12. Beaver Beacon, December 1972, untitled roster, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1972-12_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  13. Beaver Beacon, December 1974, “Obituaries,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1974-12_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  14. “Historical Print Shop on Beavers To Be Restored,” Charlevoix Courier, June 27, 1957, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/charlevoix/markdown/charlevoixcourie0419unse.md. ↩

  15. Beaver Beacon, November 2004, “30 Years Ago” retrospective column, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/2004-11_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  16. Beaver Beacon, December 2004, “30 Years Ago” retrospective column, /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/2004-12_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  17. Beaver Beacon, September–October 1974, “Party Postponed,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1974-09_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  18. Beaver Beacon, November 1974, “Obituaries,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1974-11_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

  19. Beaver Beacon, May–June 1975, “A. J. Roy Testimonial,” /data1/beaver-island-archive/ocr/beaver_beacon/markdown/1975-05_Beaver-Beacon.md. ↩

The dated record

4 dated events · 1892–1975These years on the timeline →

Sources

  1. Reports that Mrs. Roy sustained broken fingers in an automobile accident near the Roys’ home and was recuperating at home without hospitalization. The notice does not provide an exact location, medical record, or independent civil identity. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-09_Beaver-Beacon
  2. The scan confirms the accident notice and reported injury.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-09_Beaver-Beacon
  3. Identifies Mable Roy as A. J. Roy’s wife, reports her November 16 death at their Bloomfield Hills home, and says the Roys had a Beaver Island cottage. It does not provide a maiden name, birth date, funeral, cemetery, civil record, or independent marriage record.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-11_Beaver-Beacon
  4. The held eight-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-11_Beaver-Beacon
  5. Provides the fuller obituary: Mabel E. Roy was 82; died November 16 at daughter Arciel Wyatt’s home; was wife of A. J. Roy Sr.; had four surviving children, 13 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren; served as Beaver Island Historical Society secretary and treasurer; belonged to the Beaver Island Christian Church and Pine Hill Congregational Church; and co-owned and operated Roy’s Replacement Parts and Service for 37 years before retiring to the island. It also requests memorial contributions to the Christian Church or Historical Society, but supplies no birth, funeral, cemetery, civil, or business registry record.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-12_Beaver-Beacon
  6. The held nine-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1974-12_Beaver-Beacon
  7. Reports the June 7 testimonial dinner honoring A. J. and the late Mabel Roy for their Historical Society and Museum work, and the proposed Heritage Park naming in their honor. It does not provide a memorial plaque record or completed park action. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1975-05_Beaver-Beacon
  8. The held combined issue confirms the memorial testimonial and naming report.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1975-05_Beaver-Beacon
  9. Reports that "Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Roy have opened the Harbor Hills Golf Course and the Historical Building and Museum, along with their sandwich and ice cream stand," confirming Mabel Roy's joint operation of the golf course and stand by August 1961. It does not give an opening date or business registration.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1961-08_Beaver-Beacon
  10. Charlevoix Courier, "What Can Island Kids Do?" nostalgia feature, filed in the library's bound 2000 volume.
    A childhood-memory feature recalls "Harbor Hills Miniature Golf Course run by A.J. and Mable Roy," where island children could play a round and buy ice cream. It spells the name "Mable," matching the November 1974 Beacon's first, shorter obituary notice rather than the fuller December 1974 obituary's "Mabel E. Roy." The exact issue date within the bound 2000 volume was not independently confirmed. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · charlevoix · charlevoixcourie2000unse
  11. Charlevoix Courier, June 27, 1957, "Historical Print Shop on Beavers To Be Restored."
    Reports that A. J. Roy of Pontiac and Russell P. Hoffmann of Plymouth bought the island's former Mormon Print Shop to save it from demolition, and that a Beaver Island Civic Association donation then let the Historical Society purchase it from them. It names A. J. Roy only, not Mabel Roy, as buyer. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · charlevoix · charlevoixcourie0419unse
  12. Reports that "Mrs A.J. Roy" was secured as Beaver Island Civic Association secretary, replacing Dorothy McGregor (on sick leave, with Skip McDonough filling in), through the efforts of BICA president Archie LaFreniere Jr.; praises the Roys as civic-minded island contributors. It does not give an end date for the office or a formal appointment record. See also event/beaver-island-civic-association-secretary-a-j-roy-1959. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1959-07_Beaver-Beacon
  13. Reports "MINI WUZZ GOLF COURSE...sponsored by the D. I. Historical Society is now in operation under the name of Harbor Hills" (the initialism is most likely a misreading of "B. I." for Beaver Island, though this is not certain from the digitized text alone). It does not name an operator and predates the earliest source held here that names Mabel Roy in connection with the course. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1958-09_Beaver-Beacon
  14. Reports "A.J. AND MABEL ROY have returned for the summer and have their golf course all primed up for the season. The Historical Museum is also open," the earliest source held here naming Mabel Roy in direct connection with the golf course.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-06_Beaver-Beacon
  15. Directs museum visitors who find the front door closed to "the attendant at Harbor Hills Gold [sic] course in the rear of the Mormon Print Shop," locating the course adjacent to the print shop building.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-04_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Reports "Mrs. A. J. Roy donated cookies for the first" BICA teen party of the season and "The Harbor Hills Golf Course donated chocolate ice cream."
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-10_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Reports "Winner of the door prize, a Zenith Transistor, donated by the Rountree's, was Mrs. Mabel Roy," at a fundraising event held to benefit museum cabinetry work.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1964-09_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Reports "the owners of Harbor Hills Golf Course" thanking customers "over the past 12 years" and welcoming incoming owners "Mr. and Mrs. Richard Guarino." The notice does not name the outgoing owners; a twelve-year span (1959-1971) is consistent with, but not proof of, continuous Roy operation, since no other operator of the course is documented in this collection between 1960 and 1969.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-04_Beaver-Beacon
  19. Lists "A. J. & Mabel Roy" among island residents who left for the winter, showing the couple still dividing their year between the island and the mainland three months before the golf course changed hands.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-01_Beaver-Beacon
  20. Lists "A. J. and Mabel Roy" among those who left the island for the winter, the latest source held here confirming the couple's seasonal pattern before Mabel Roy's death in 1974. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1972-12_Beaver-Beacon
  21. Beaver Beacon, November 2004, "30 Years Ago" retrospective column.
    Recalls that "Passings noted included Sister Aquino Boyce, who had taught here, and Mabel Roy, who, with her husband A. J. (cofounders of the Historical Society) had been in a car crash and suffered injuries initially thought to be minor." This 30-years-later retrospective, not a contemporary 1974 source, is the only source held here that calls Mabel Roy a Historical Society "cofounder" rather than an officer; it is recorded as this column's characterization, not adjudicated against the December 1974 obituary's narrower "secretary and treasurer." No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-11_Beaver-Beacon
  22. Beaver Beacon, December 2004, "30 Years Ago" retrospective column.
    Recalls that "Passings noted included Mabel Roy, first secretary and treasurer of the Historical Society." Also a 30-years-later retrospective rather than a contemporary source; it adds "first" to the office recorded in her own December 1974 obituary. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2004-12_Beaver-Beacon
  23. Beaver Beacon, July 2009, "Fifty Years Ago" retrospective column.
    Recalls that "Civic Association secretary Dorothy McGregor became ill; her duties were temporarily taken over by Skip McDonough until president Archie LaFreniere convinced Mabel Roy to accept the post," corroborating, fifty years later, the contemporary July 1959 Beacon account of the same appointment. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2009-07_Beaver-Beacon

Added 1 August 2026 · revised 5 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Mabel Roy”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/people/mable-roy/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, September–October 1974, “Party Postponed.” (and 22 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-05. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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