Roy Ernest Elsasser

The family of Roy Ernest Elsasser, age 96 of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, is saddened by his death
due to natural causes on the morning of March 07, 2026.
The last five months of Roy’s life was a painful adventure, taking him away from the sanctuary
of his home to emergency rooms, hospital wards, long term care facilities, and finally palliative
care at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre.
Roy’s determination to spend Christmas 2025 at home was realized, but the resurgence of bone
cancer early in 2026 shattered his hopes of remaining there. 
Mr. Elsasser was born at Runnymede, Saskatchewan on August 8, 1929. His parents, Adam and
Katherine (Riffel) had four other children, two of whom, his sisters, died as youngsters. Roy also
mourned the deaths of his older brother Richard and sister Helen. Roy’s father died in 1935 of a
ruptured appendix while traveling by train from Runnymede to Kamsack, leaving the family in
abject poverty.
Roy helped his family survive the 1930s and early 40s by working in the garden, helping farmers
on threshing crews, and hunting and fishing. He remarked that he never saw a 25-cent coin until
he was 14, but also never went to bed hungry. Roy left school after grade 8, finding winter work
in Ontario bush camps cutting and stacking cord wood. 
Like his father Adam, Roy eventually became a grain elevator manager. He bought and shipped
grain for Pioneer (Richardson’s) in Togo, Saskatchewan, competing with four other firms.
Employment secured, he pursued a wife and kids.
Roy and Elsie (Nabe) were married on November 2, 1955. They soon had two sons: Douglas and
Alan who grew up collecting and selling beer bottles, playing hockey, and going to school. The
family left Togo in 1970 for Weyburn, Saskatchewan where Roy began a new career representing
the Canadian Wheat Board. 
His new role as a Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) inspector challenged Roy to complete high
school by correspondence, and travel his territory overseeing the orderly marketing of grain. Prior
to the Harper government’s elimination of the CWB, grain deliveries to country elevators were
regulated by quotas and permit books. All grain was sold by the CWB, and producers received an
initial and possibly a final payment. Not all grain buyers and farmers supported this business
model, leading to weekly confrontations and arguments. Roy weathered these storms, helped to
establish the first inland grain terminal in western Canada, and retired with a good pension and
benefits package in 1995.
Prior to retiring and leaving Weyburn at age 65, Roy spotted a property south of Togo in the
Assiniboine River Valley adjacent to Lake of the Prairies. He convinced Elsie that this was a
good place to live, and called on Douglas and his wife Barb to negotiate purchase of the land. 
When previous owner Delores Ulrich accepted their offer and title was obtained, Roy and Elsie’s
25-year active retirement near Lake of the Prairies began. Following much effort, a new ready to
move house was placed on a full basement. Power, telephone, water, sewer, heat and other
services were connected. Roy finished the basement walls with tamarack planks purchased at a
local sawmill. He established a vegetable garden, bought a fishing boat, got busy cutting
firewood, and settled in for the duration.
While Roy seemed content shoveling snow and burning wood, Elsie found the isolation and
hardships of winter increasingly oppressive. A family crisis ensued, resulting in Roy’s paradise
becoming listed for sale and almost lost. The dilemma was resolved when, urged by their son
Alan to invest in real estate, the couple cashed in some GICs and purchased a second house in
Yorkton. Now everyone was happy. 
Roy’s life nearly ended in 2019 when he suffered a serious stroke. Luckily he was at home in
Yorkton at the time, and EMS personnel quickly arrived with an injection. His one leg and ability
to speak were impaired, but he continued to visit the lake house to garden, cut the lawn, and pick
saskatoon berries. About 20 family and friends gathered there to celebrate his 90th
 birthday in
2020. 
As you might expect, Mr. Elsasser’s last years were spent close to home in Yorkton. Several of
his friends and relatives lived in a retirement home, The Bentley, across the street from Roy and
Elsie’s residence on Russell Drive. Roy would invite them to his veranda on the shaded north
side of the house where they could reminisce, drink coffee, and watch the cars go by.
Roy Elsasser is survived by Elsie, his loving and devoted wife of 70 years, and his sons Douglas
(Barb) and Alan (Jackie). His one grandson Mike (Erin) and two great grandchildren, Zach and
Cade, reside in Saskatoon. 
The family is grateful for assistance provided by long term care staff in Theodore, Yorkton home
care workers, and other Saskatchewan Health Authority personnel in Foam Lake and Melville.

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