Corrine Cyr had always said there are two kinds of people: those who want to live in the Yukon and those who live in the Yukon.

Cyr was the latter, and in many ways, likely part of the reason people want to live here.

The Yukon is now bidding farewell to a pioneer in the territory's health field who was instrumental in numerous community groups and organizations throughout her life. Cyr died last Thursday at the age of 90.

'She was constantly giving,' daughter Noelle Misko said in an interview Tuesday in Whitehorse.

While Cyr found her home in the Yukon, it wasn't her first choice as a place to move to when she travelled here from Vancouver in 1941, Misko said.

As Cyr was wrapping up her nursing studies at St. Paul's Nursing School in Vancouver, the nuns working at the school asked her if she had found a job.

When she replied with a no, they told her nurses were needed in the Yukon, to which she again said no.

As graduation approached, she continued to say she didn't want to move to the Yukon but was still without a job. Finally, the nuns told her they would buy her a return ticket to and from the territory, but she had to stay here for at least a year.

'She never used that return ticket,' said Noelle.

In fact, the mother Noelle and her brothers Terence and Raymond Cyr knew, wouldn't have left the territory for anything in the world, both Noelle and Terence recalled.

'It was her home and her community,' said Noelle.

In the early 1940s, the nurse was flown to Teslin to deal with a measles epidemic that had struck the first nations community as the Alaska Highway was being built.

'Those Teslin natives hold her in high regard,' said Terence, who recalled that even during his last visit to Whitehorse just a few years ago, he heard praises for his mother from first nations members who remembered her work.

'They lost some (patients), but they saved a lot and that was thanks to her,' said Terence.

She could have been one of the first civilians to drive on the then-restricted and newly-constructed Alaska Highway. When she was sent back to Whitehorse, she was offered a drive back on the highway, but insisted that since they flew her down, she would be on a flight back.

It was on Nov. 11, 1943 that the then-Corrine O'Neill married lifelong Yukoner Laurent Cyr over Laurent's lunch hour.

Thinking Nov. 11 would be a holiday, Laurent left work on Nov. 10 saying he would see his boss and co-workers on Nov. 12. His boss then told him he was scheduled to work, to which Laurent responded he wasn't working because he was getting married.

When his boss insisted he had to work, Laurent said he'd need a longer lunch hour for the ceremony.

The reception for the newly-wed couple was held after Laurent was finished work for the day.

It was a marriage that would last a little more than 62 years and include honours for both of their contributions to the community.

In 1983, they were named Mr. and Mrs. Yukon during the annual Sourdough Rendezvous festival, and in 2001, both Laurent and Corrine received Commissioner's Awards.

'Corrine Cyr is a leader of the community through her work and life membership with the Catholic Women's League, the Royal Purple, the International Order of the Daughters of the Empire and the Ladies Auxiliary of the Yukon Order of Pioneers,' a statement from the Commissioner's office read when the awards were announced.

'I think she was very honoured,' said Noelle of the Commissioner's Award.

Terence recalled his mother being instrumental on a number of national organizations like the Canadian Lung Association as well as other local groups like the Golden Age Society and the Yukon Council on Aging.

Her giving spirit also shone through at home. On many occasions when neighbours were down on their luck, Corrine would have them bake the family a pie and pay them for the work.

It was a great trade-off in a home where the mom wasn't such a great cook.

'She wasn't a good cook, but we never went hungry,' said Terence.

His childhood home was also always decorated for the season with Corrine and Laurent picking up the colourful leaves of the fall or the blooming plants of the spring.

'They always liked going for drives,' said Noelle.

Knitting was also a favourite pasttime for the woman when she wasn't busy between the many groups she volunteered with, nursing, and at one point, a catering business.

And there was also the full-time job as mother to her three kids, who got into some mischief of their own.

Once, she got a call from staff at the airport because a kite Raymond and Terence was flying was obstructing planes.

Their mom wasn't too impressed, but the brothers took the kite elsewhere.

Even in recent years, Corrine continued to be active enjoying cards, word puzzles and other activities.

Corrine is also being remembered as a woman who never wavered in her position.

Involved with the design of Closeleigh Manor when it was built in the late 1980s, Corrine was adamant some residents would want the two-bedroom units. She never wavered, and some residents at the First Avenue facility today are able to enjoy having a two-bedroom home.

That focus had continued even in recent weeks when staff at Macaulay Lodge tried to help her by unpacking a suitcase she had at the end of her bed.

Each time they unpacked it, she would repack it again and finally told the nurses there to leave it alone because she was going to her grand-daughter's wedding in May.

It was the same suitcase she took with her to on her final trip Outside, 'her last swan song,' to Edmonton for a family reunion last year.

Noelle said her mother, at 90 years old, boarded a plane out of Whitehorse and travelled to Vancouver, then on to Edmonton. More than 100 relatives came out to the reunion and all seemed to want to visit with Corrine.

'She was the matriarch,' said Noelle.

It was after that trip she heard about her granddaughter's upcoming wedding and kept the suitcase out and packed for her next trip.

'She did it her way right to the very end,' said Noelle.