Marion Sarich
Marion Sarich (15 November 1916 – 27 January 1996) born in Phoenix, B.C. Her parents were Croatian immigrants. Her father mined in Princeton, Hedley, Copper Mountain, and in South Dakota while her mother ran a boarding house in Phoenix. Her mother became bedridden when she was just a small child and died around 1917. Her father had previously been diagnosed with silicosis. He moved the family to Saskatchewan to take up farming, however, his health declined and he died there in 1918. Two of her older sisters stayed in Saskatchewan, but the rest of the family returned to Phoenix. Marion moved to Vancouver with her sister (interviewee Anita Andersen) as young girls to work as domestics. She began organizing domestics in the 1930’s and worked with the Housewives’ League. Around 1936, she and Anita began living together and both worked at the Trocadero Cafe where they both became involved in organizing the waitresses. Marion also participated in organizing Army & Navy, Woolworths, and in the 1940’s, the Canadian Seamen’s Union (later the Seamen’s International Union) while continuing her waitressing work. By the 1960’s she had started working for Canada Post and was active in its unions. She died in Ladner, B.C. at the age of 80.