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THE KEITH
BEEDIE STORY
“I walked in …
and thereʼs Lee
making funny
sounds.”
Tanis Beedie, Keith and Lee’s
second child, was born in 1955.
PART 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION
CHAPTER 7: LETTING IN THE ENTREPRENEUR
that once again Keith’s family was homeless. Th is time, at least, he had
Lana to blame when he told Lee that they were moving.
“I was only fi ve, but I made that little sign and stuck it in the ditch. I
have no recollection of asking Dad to write the words ‘for sale,’ but I
think I started something for Dad. He fi gured if he could build one house
that someone would buy, he could build more.”
—LANA BRINDLEY, KEITH’S DAUGHTER
Th e house was sold and Keith wanted to move back to Halley Street,
so he bought another lot on the same street, this time for $1,500. Once
again, he drew up plans to build a house. But another house would
take time to put up and that didn’t solve his pressing need for a place
to live right now. As a temporary measure, the three Beedies moved
into a nearby nine-unit apartment building that Keith had constructed
and now managed. “It was a tiny two-bedroom place,” says Keith.
Aft er growing accustomed to the space aff orded by his own house,
apartment living was not a pleasurable experience. “It was terrible,”
says Keith. He was motivated to get the family back into their own
home. Between the manager’s job, building contract houses and being
hard at work constructing his own place, his plate was full.
While W working on a small subdivision in Surrey, Keith
discovered d an extra incentive to complete the second house
oon
Halley Street quickly. Lee announced one morning that she
wwas
pregnant again. Th e family of three moved out of the two-
bbedroom
apartment and into their big new home with time
to spare. One evening, not long aft er settling in, Keith arrived
home from work to grab a quick bite to eat before heading off
to see a Canucks game with Charlie. “I walked in,” says Keith
“and there’s Lee making funny sounds. I was still thinking
about making the game, so I jumped in the car to take her
to Burnaby Hospital as fast as I could.” In those days, men
weren’t expected – or encouraged – to be with their wives
while they were in labour, so Keith was about to make a quick
getaway. Th e baby had other plans, though. “We were in the
elevator in the hospital when Lee’s water broke,” says Keith.
“Th en boom diddy boom we had another little girl.” Keith
said hello to his new daughter before making his way on to
the game. gam He arrived by eight o’clock, sitting down next to Charlie
in their usual seats at the very top row of the old Forum. As he took
his seat, Keith casually mentioned that he had a new baby daughter.
Charlie was shocked. “I had just seen him at work at fi ve o’clock. It all
happened that quickly,” says Keith.
Fift een months later, Lee went into labour with the couple’s third
child, Colin. Keith did what men were expected to do in the
1950s: he drove his wife to the hospital and aft er a while returned
home. He was awoken in the middle of the night to Dr. Rideout’s
phone call informing him that he had a son. “I’ll never forget how
he said it,” Keith says. “His comment was, ‘You have a new baby
… and you put a handle on this one!’ I laughed.”
Despite how busy he was, when the next opportunity came up,
Keith knew he had to jump at it. John Boultby was a friend from
Keith’s high school days. John had gone to a diff erent school, but
the two boys had known one another through mutual friends.
John’s father was a real estate developer, and to introduce his
son to the business he had given him control over one of his
projects, Central Park Garden Village in Burnaby. He was
planning a huge subdivision of about 300 lots. John approached Keith
to see if he was interested in building some houses in the subdivision.
Keith immediately thought of the split-level houses he had just fi nished
in North and West Vancouver. “Th ey were all over the North Shore
because of the steep slopes, but there weren’t any in Burnaby yet,” says
Keith. “I knew they would be as popular as all heck. People don’t always
want a full basement, so I thought they would sell one aft er another.” He
came up with a design for a versatile split-level and took a drive with
John Boultby around the development site.
“We drove around to see which lots were big enough for the design,”
says Keith. Th ere were about 30 lots in the subdivision that would fi t
the split-level plan, selling for $1,100 apiece. Keith made a list of the
appropriate lots and then made a big decision. He off ered John a $10
deposit on each of the 30 lots. “I knew that if I built split-level houses,
they would sell. Th ere wasn’t anything like them in the Vancouver/
Burnaby area. Driving around like that, buying up land, it was
something else.” He paid his deposit and set to work.
“Our Sunday family ritual was driving around to job sites. My
favourite thing was going to a site where there was a building to
demolish. My dad would let us throw rocks at the windows to break
them. Work sites were like giant playgrounds to us.”
—TANIS RUBINI, KEITH’S DAUGHTER
“Aft er touring the job sites on Sundays, we used to go eat at White
Spot. I loved that part.”
—LANA BRINDLEY, KEITH’S DAUGHTER
Keith Keith with son, Colin,
circa 1957.
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