After running Wood’s Sewing Machines (formerly known as Wood’s Sewing Centre) for 35 years, as well as volunteering for charitable causes and contributing to community groups and associations, Gloria Wood has decided to retire.
“It’s a good time,” she said of her decision.
While not originally from Fort Frances, Wood has done a great deal for the town in the years she’s lived here,
Wood (née Corda) first moved to Fort Frances as a home economics teacher after completing her studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
Shortly thereafter, she met and married George Wood, to whom she was married for 42 years. Together they opened Wood’s Sewing Centre on Second Street.
“We opened on Nov. 29, 35 years ago,” Wood said, sitting in the store beside a table full of sewing machines.
Originally, the store carried a variety of Singer products like radios, washers and dryers, record players, and vacuum cleaners. “Six months later, we introduced fabric,” she noted.
But as Singer gradually phased out its line of appliances, the store came to focus on sewing machines, Wood added.
Its current location on Scott Street has undergone a number of transformations over the years, Wood noted. “We moved into this location in 1981. There was an empty lot beside the old house,” she said.
Some years later, the Woods were approached by Sears, which wanted them to build another building from which they could sell Sears products.
Eventually, the Woods sold the fabric portion of the business and joined the two buildings across the front.
This front portion is now Wilson’s Business Solutions while Wood’s Sewing Machines (as it was renamed a few years ago) is located in the back—in what is the original house.
“It’s an unusual configuration,” Wood laughed.
Wood and her late husband, who passed away due to cancer in 2001, were involved in many events around town.
“Any projects that George took on, I also worked with him,” she explained. “We’ve been very active. Between the two of us, one of us would go to meetings and the other would watch the store.”
Over the years, Wood has been involved with the Fun in the Sun committee, the Fort Frances Arts and Crafts Association, the Rainy River District Business Women’s Network, the Catholic Women’s League, and the hospital auxiliary.
She also was on the committee that travelled to Taiwan to promote the Town of Fort Frances.
Her husband was named “Citizen of the Year” in 1992 for his work on the Fun in the Sun committee and with the Fort Frances Kinsmen Club, among others.
“We had our fingers in a lot of pies,” Wood laughed. “We felt that as business owners in the community, you have to give back to the community.”
The couple also raised two children, and Wood now has four grandchildren.
Now that she’s retiring, Wood said she plans to continue her volunteer work.
“I’ve got plenty to do,” she remarked. “I have no family here at all, but I have lots of wonderful friends.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
