Jacqueline (Jackie) Grace Hugo
(nee Jones, m Jack Hooper, aka Jackie Hooper)
January 16 1927 -
King George High School (graduated 1944)
Canadian Women's Army Corps (1944-46)
Vancouver School of Art
University of British Columbia (grad B.A., M.A.)
Brock House Hikers (coordinator)
Portrait of Jackie Hugo
Courtesy King George High School Archives
Jackie Hugo was born in North Vancouver in 1927. She attended Lord Roberts Elementary School in
Vancouver's West End, then went to King George High School. Her father had died from
meningitis, and she was raised by her mother, along with her older sister Nadine. To
help make ends meet during the depression, she is said to have used a rowboat to salvage
loose logs in False Creek, selling them for $3.00 each to a man called "Barnacle Bill"
who ran a boat called The Hell You Say. She also worked at Jones Tent and Awning,
helping make blackout curtains during World War Two. Immediately after high school graduation
in June 1944 she enlisted in the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC) and spent two years posted
in Nova Scotia driving soldiers home from the docks in Halifax. The CWAC was disbanded in
August 1946.
She returned to Vancouver after her service, where she graduated as a veteran from
UBC with a B.A. in economics and geography. In 1947, while attending
UBC, she worked for Tommy Coleman's garage at Pender and Hornby Streets, where she was
nicknamed "Johnny" Jones. In 1949 she "got her pilot's licence and flew small planes." She
worked as a photogrammetrist, making maps from aerial photographs. She married Jack Hooper
in 1953, the couple had two sons. A series of misfortunes led her to
being depressed, and she lived for a few years in the One West inpatient care unit at UBC.
She later went back to university to earn her M.A. in Social Work.
She founded a housing project in the West End for ex-patients, in an apartment building at
Pendrell & Bute Streets known as the Hooper Apartments. She won the "Courage to Come Back"
award in 2014, which included a $1,000,000.00 cheque donated to Coastal Health to support her work.
She wrote newspaper columns for the Province newspaper when she was in high school, and
later wrote articles for the Vancouver Courier, with a column titled "Hopping Around."
She also worked as Head Librarian for the GVRD Planning department for almost 10 years.
Hooper became involved in the MPA Society in the early 1970s. The Society was founded in
1971 as a "drop-in support group and a member-owned communal living group home." The
Society still functions in 2022 with over $23 million in annual funding for housing programs
and mental health services. Hooper also wrote for and edited "The Nutshell," the MPA's newsletter.
In 1975 she exhibited one artwork titled "Autumn Rain - Vancouver" (priced
at $250.00) in DAWN, an exhibit of B.C. women artists
organized by the UBC Alma Mater Society. She provided a brief artist statement
for the exhibition catalogue:
Jacqueline Hugo lives and works in and near Vancouver's Lower Mainland. Her most
favoured medium is pastel because of their light weight and ease of carrying,
because characteristically she works while back-packing in the mountains.
Her favoured places are the North Shore mountains and the alpine country in the
mountains beyond Squamish. She likes to work with immediacy and to finish what
she is doing at a sitting. "I pray for good weather, but sometimes work under
an umbrella to capture an intriguing spot in the local mountains, or up north
in the Skeena country.
My favourite subjects are the gaunt skeletons of dead trees, weathered log
cabins, remote little lakes -- and people."
|
Book cover
In 2006 she self-published Hiking in Colour, and Big Ken in 2007.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
| DATE |
EXHIBITION |
LOCATION |
|
|
|
| 1978 Sept. 28 - 30 |
Solo show (pastels) |
Cottonwood Corner, Chilliwack |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
| DATE |
EXHIBITION |
ARTWORK |
|
|
|
| 1975 Oct. 20 - Nov. 7 |
DAWN |
Autumn Rain, Vancouver |
References - BIBLIOGRAPHY
Refer to BIBLIO.
References - GENERAL
VISUAL ARTS BRITISH COLUMBIA (refer to VABC77)
Biography file courtesy Jim Bradbury, King George High School Archives
West Vancouver Archives fond: https://www.memorybc.ca/jacqueline-hugo-fonds
MPA Society website: www.mpa-society.org
ABC Bookworld website: abcbookworld.com/writer/hooper-jacqueline
Clippings
"Students End Year's Events" by Jacqueline Jones
Vancouver Province June 11 1943 page 27
"Art Willoughby Memorial Cup Won By King George Student" by Jacqueline Jones
Vancouver Province June 18 1943 page 13
""Best Button Bringer" At King George Wins Prize" by Jacqueline Jones
Vancouver Province February 12 1944 page 16
"King George High School"
Vancouver Sun July 15 1944 page 14
"In downtown Vancouver there's an attractive blonde who doesn't worry about grimy
hands and greasy hair. She's too busy being a service station grease-girl."
From "Blonde Co-Ed Plays Nurse-Maid to Cars"
Vancouver Sun July 26 1947 page 13
"Aerial Pictures Unscrambled as Machine Pin-Points Areas in City and Country" by Doug Leiterman
Vancouver Province February 14 1951 page 21
"Chilliwack scenes included in show"
Chilliwack Progress September 27 1978 page 9
"Courage to Come Back: Jackie Hooper" by Martha Perkins
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archive/news/courage-to-come-back-jackie-hooper-2978237, May 14 2014
"A Life of Struggle and Achievement" by Kathleen Saylors
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/courier-archive/living/a-life-of-struggle-and-achievement-3012678, June 5 2015
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