College wedding a surprise

Here’s an article from the March 7 1928 edition of the Toronto Daily Star about a wedding between two University of Toronto undergraduates:

As it turned out, the marriage between Stephen Dale and Isabel Brown only lasted four years. There is a Wikipedia page for Isabel LeBourdais, as she eventually became: she joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor of the NDP, and married CCF politician D. M. LeBourdais in 1942. In 1966, she wrote The Trial of Steven Truscott, which was the first book to claim that Truscott had been wrongfully convicted of murder; her book led to a review of his case. His conviction was overturned in 2007.

The LeBourdaises had four children; one of their grandchildren, Mark LeBourdais, played in the ska band King Apparatus. She passed away in 2003; Mr. LeBourdais, who was 22 years her senior, had passed away nearly 40 years earlier.

The 1929 Toronto city directory lists James A. Dale as a director at the University of Toronto and living at 579 Huron Street, and also lists Stephen Dale as a student at that address. There is also an Ernest A. Dale listed as a professor at the University of Toronto and living at 576 Huron, which is right across the street; I’m not sure whether these Dales were related, but it would be my best guess.

After this, the trail grows a bit murky. Listing year by year:

• The 1930 directory lists James E. Dale at 579 Huron with no occupation and does not list Stephen or James A. Dale.
• The 1931 directory lists Stephen H. Dale as an engineer with Bell and living at 8 Moore Avenue. I’m not 100% certain that this is the man from the article, but the middle initial matches. There is no entry for James A. or James E. Dale, and there is no entry for a widow of James. 579 Huron is listed as having somebody else (not named Dale) living there.
• The 1932 and 1933 directories list him as an engineer with Bell and living at 161 Lake Shore Road in Mimico.
• The 1934 directory lists Stephen H. Dale as a serviceman at the Rose Hill Service Station and living at 1 Baker Avenue.
• The 1935 directory lists him as a prospector and living at 1 Baker Avenue.
• The 1936 directory lists Stephen Dale as a salesman for Canadian Johns-Manville and living at 36 Bond Street.
• The 1937 directory does not have a listing for Stephen Dale, but there is a listing for Mrs. Isabel Dale at 77 Wilson.
• The 1938 directory still lists her at that address and now has a listing for Stephen Dale as a salesman living at 218 John Street and a listing for Stephen H. Dale as a salesman for the Home Improvement Company and living at 1243 Bloor West. This is the last directory in which I found a reference to anyone named Stephen Dale; at this point, given that his ex-wife’s page lists him as Lieutenant Stephen Holmes Dale, I assume that he went off to fight in the war. I found no post-war references to him.

By the way, Ernest Dale remained in the same location throughout all of this: the 1951 directory still lists him as a professor at Trinity College and living at 576 Huron.