From running a store that was considered the heart of a community, to forging friendships with neighbours that felt familial, those brutally harmed or killed by Allan Legere are remembered as much more than victims.
Correctional Services Canada announced Legere’s death in custody this week, prompting stories of a fearful seven months in the late-1980s — when Legere escaped custody and terrorized the Miramichi.
The victims are often named in stories about his crimes.
But as archival footage, documents and interviews from that time show, each person had a story of their own beyond Legere.
Mary Glendenning, pictured entering Miramichi’s historic courthouse, survived a brutal attack by Allan Legere while her husband John Glendenning was killed. (CBC)John F. Glendenning, 66, and Mary Edna Bessie Glendenning (survived)
John and Mary Glendenning were married shopkeepers, who lived on the same property their store was situated on in Black River Bridge.
The pair opened the general store, about 20 minutes east of Chatham, in 1953.
John had three sisters and four brothers, according to his obituary published in the Telegraph-Journal.
Sister-in-law Shirley Watling described Mary as “an angel,” who took comfort in time with family until her death in 2013 at the age of 89.
The Glendennings opened their store in 1953. (CBC)
“Easygoing, very soft spoken, big heart. Very church-going person. Her and John both were,” Watling said in an interview with CBC News this week.
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