Hespero, Alberta

Betty Speirs was born at Hespero, Alberta, in 1931. Her father, Neil Humalamaki, had come from Finland, as had her maternal grandparents, who took a homestead north of Eckville in 1903. Neil died when Betty was one, and her mother, Emma, moved Betty and her brother into Eckville. Finnish was spoken in her home, according to an account written by her son, Dale Speirs, and published in the Alberta Palaeontological Society Bulletin in 2018. The account does not specify whether that language use began at Hespero, continued in Eckville, or both.