A.E. Murphy | thebravestcanadian

Eddie and Isobel Murphy were a pioneer couple across the lake from Nelson, British Columbia from 1920s to 1950

February 21, 2020

by Sam McBride

I never knew my great-uncle Arthur Edward “Eddie” Murphy (1894-1950) as he died a year before I was born, but I feel a connection to him because my parents gave me my middle name of Edward in his honour. His wife Isobel Bessie Murphy (1897-1988) was a younger sister of my grandmother Winnifred Mae McBride (1889-1960).

Eddie played and excelled at just about every team sport going on in Nelson, including hockey, baseball and lacrosse. He was perhaps best known as an expert rower who led Nelson team to victory in regattas in Kootenay Lake, the Okanagan, Vancouver and Portland. He and his brother Howard were prominent in Nelson with their Murphy Brothers Painting and Decorating business, which continued a business started in the 1890s by their father William James Murphy. Isobel had a key role in the operation as interior decoration consultant.

leigh and ken mcbride at bottom left and friends in picnic by lake (1)

Gathering of family and friends in 1925 at Murphy beach across the lake from where the Prestige Inn in Nelson is located today. Eddie Murphy is the the man on the left, and his wife Isobel is lady second from the right. At bottom left are their nephews Leigh and Ken McBride. Man in dark suit is Wilfrid Laurier Allan, who was secretary-treasurer of the Wood Vallance Hardware Company in the 1930s. Family photo.

I remember Isobel well from growing up in Nelson, where she was a popular member of extended family. She was a smart businesswoman who was renowned as an interior decorator with extensive knowledge of paint, colours, wallpaper, antiques, rugs, carpet and other aspects of home furnishing and decoration. By the early 1970s she had largely retired, but still ran the Murphy Signs business in Nelson which included a variety of signs and billboards. She was in top form until suffering a stroke in late 1974 that resulted in substantial dementia. The last 13 years of her life were in the Mount St. Francis long-term care home in Nelson.

Another photo of the group of family and friends in 1925 near the Murphy beach, looking back towards the city of Nelson. Family photo.

Isobel was one of four Foote sisters who arrived in Nelson in July 1900 with their mother Edith James Foote. They joined their father John James “Jim” Foote who had arrived in Nelson in 1899 to start a job as blacksmith at the Silver King Mine. The family lived in a rented cabin on Silver King townsite for two years until moving to Nelson when Jim began working in construction for the City of Nelson. Their home by Hall Mines Road and Cottonwood Creek was rented from former Nelson alderman Thomas Slader.

The story of the lives of Eddie and Isobel Murphy are told well in their obituaries below. The Eddie Murphy obit, likely written by his widow Isobel, was in the Nelson Daily News in March 1950. The submission for Isobel’s obituary was written by her nephew Judge Blake Allan. Eddie and Isobel never had children of their own, and were almost like second parents for the children of her sisters Winnie and Lillian.