Long time RR businessman celebrates his 90th birthday

Christine Green

Tony (Anton) Hovorka was honored at this 90th “Happy Birthday” celebration in Rainy River, Ont. on Sat., May 18th at the Canadian Legion.
Family and friends attended from Manitoba: Vassar, Whitemouth Lake area, Sprague, Ridgeville, Emerson and Winnipeg; from Ontario: Renfrew, Rainy River, Fort Frances, Nestor Falls, Kenora, Red Lake, Sapawee and Atikokan; and from Minnesota: International Falls, and Crosby (near Brainerd).
With 48 persons in attendance, the social hour was followed by a fine turkey dinner put on by the ladies’ Auxiliary of the Legion Club by his children Christine Green, Sylvia Shannon, and Bob Hovorka. Bob graced the floor after the meal, praising Tony for his many accomplishments throughout his career. A birthday cake and ice cram followed with all singing the “Happy Birthday” song, and guests joined Tony dancing to “Old Time” music of tapes, polkas, two-steps, and waltzes.
Tony‘s story began with his parents Anton and Marie Hovorka who came to North America from the old country of Czechoslovakia in the early 1900’s. They made their home in Mahnomen, Minnesota, USA where Tony was born on May 19th, 1912. Two years later, Tony’s brother Joe Hovorka was born and within a few years, parents Anton and marie Hovorka moved north to immigrated to Vassar, Man., Canada. Homesteading at Whitemouth Lake in a clearing of tall pines form which his dad built their log home, another brother and a sister, Frank and Annie were born.
When Tony was 12 years old, tragedy struck the family when his father, Anton Hovorka succumbed to cancer that the was fighting for the past few years. This was a terrible time, out in the wilderness without any government aid at that time. Tony, being the oldest, had to quit school to help his mother support the family. Later, younger brother also quite school to help at the homestead. Tony and Joe cut wood for sale and later cut and hewed heavy railroad ties, did small farming, made e and sold hay and some livestock. Brother Frank and sister Annie were to young.
Tony married Rosie Klapka, daughter of Joseph & Frances Sebesta Klapka in 1939. Three children were born to them in Manitoba, Christine (1940), Sylvia (1941), and Robert (Bob) in (1943). Mid 1943, Tony decided there was a better life to be had in Ontario, so he packed up his 1942 International truck and moved to Rainy River, and bought their first house on the riverfront near the bridge.
Later, they bought a house on First St. across from the Alexander Public School.
Tony started out hauling wood in the Rainy River area. Trucking then was very hard work, all done by hand, and the roads were very bad, so Tony decided to change occupations and started a taxi business called “Tony’s Taxi” in Rainy River. But this wasn’t enough to do an his ambitions took over. He drove a school bus to the Harris Hill countryside for a couple of years. He then sold the bus and bought a grocery store on main Street of Rainy. He soon opened up a Barber Shop in the back of the store and obtained a license to further his barbering experience obtained from cutting hair in bush camps in Manitoba.
After the children left home, Tony and Rose divorced but he managed the store and barber shop business himself. Within a couple of years, he married Margaret Antonson and the two of them enjoyed 32 good years together until she passed away in October 1996.
An interesting story Tony told was when he first started his taxi business. The first car, a Plymouth kept breaking down and parts were hard to find. So he drove to Fort Frances to a dealership and purchased a brand new 1944 Chevrolet car sitting on a rack without any tires. the was was still on and new tires were scarce. He managed to get one new tire elsewhere and three retreads and brought them to the garage and had them mounted. Driving back to Rainy River about three miles from home, he saw a rubber tire running ahead of his car. He slowed down and stopped the car and was amazed to find that it was his retread tire which he picked up and put in the car. He continued to drive the rest of the way home on just the canvas and the inner tube and made it!
Tony is till living in his own home looking after himself, manages household chores, cooking his own meals, picking raspberries in his back yard and canned them last year. As he moved the barber shop to the basement of his home, he continuous to barber, cutting two or three heads a week, as customers come. Tony is a hard working person, a great achiever with a big heart and a lust for life.
Bob toasted him, “...90 years of a fulfilled life. May your next 90 years be easier than the last 90.”