Dolores Niskanen

Dolores Melba May Niskanen (nee Vuori) (born circa 1940) was Michael Currie's first ballroom dance teacher.

Early life

Dolores was born circa 1940 to Irene Kuisma and Hannes Antinpoika Vuori (1892 - 1962).

Her father Hannes had previously been married, to Amelia Hermanson, so when she was born she already had a half-brother based in Thunder Bay:

Raymond Johannes "Ray" Ward (Vuori) (1921 - 1998). Ray had four children, including genealogist Matthew Robert Ward.

She married Wally Niskanen circa 1955.

In 1958, with her husband she had her son Keven in St. Catherines, then moved to Victoria, BC.

Her father Hannes died in 1962 at age 70 in Saint Catharines. After Hannes' death, Dolores' mother Irene remarried to a man named Onni Kuisma.

Career

In the early 1960s, Dolores was the instructor for the Yritys athletic club, part of the Toronto Yritys and Finnish Organization. They performed a "mass gym by the girls, a hoop gym by the girls and a folk dance (a Finnish polka)", on Sunday 9 July 1961.

Dolores Niskanen donated a gift certificate for her School of Dance to the first "Wymmyn's [sic] Social", held on 14 November 1981 in Thunder Bay.

As of 1999 she ran the Dolores Niskanen Studio Of Fitness & Dance, at 16 Court Street South, in the historic Ruttan Block, (named for the former mayor of Port Arthur, Mayor James Ruttan) in downtown Port Arthur, Thunder Bay. The studio's phone number was (807) 344-1300.

Michael Currie took classes with Tanya Elise Oja in the fall 1999 and winter 2000 semesters.

One of her most dedicated students during this time was a man called Wayne.

Her business shut down sometime prior to 2009, since Google Street View shows the studio as derelict as of 2009, and occupied by a lingerie store as of 2012.

In 2007, she was living in London, Ontario, likely to be with her second husband Dr. Paivio. In 2007 she organized a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Research at Cherryhill Village Mall.

Snowflakes of Hope. To raise money for Breast Cancer research, Smart Woman of Cherryhill Village Mall hosted dinner, a fashion show and a silent auction at Aroma restaurant downtown. Kim Ariesen (Fashion Coordinator) and Dolores Niskanen (Event Coordinator) put on an impressive show with the models from Elegance School of Modeling. With all the fashions stating class, and dinner being unparalleled, there is little reason to doubt that next years show will be anything less than impressive.
— snapd London, 2007 (written possibly by photographer Jason Wells)

I am especially grateful to my wife Dolores Niskanen for her patience during the many years when she thought I was glued to my computer. But then, she understands passion for a calling from her own long career in dance and choreography.
— Dr. Allan Paivio, second husband of Dolores, in the acknowledgements to his book, Mind and Its Evolution, 2007

Personal life

Her first husband was Wally Niskanen. With him she had a son, Keven Richard Vuori Niskanen (1958 - 2 March 2014), born in St. Catherines. At the time of Keven's death in 2014, Wally lived in Red Deer. Keven was "a licensed finishing carpenter and had a great interest in architecture, design, and colour. He loved animals and was a fan of the Rolling Stones." From his obituary it does not appear that Keven married or had issue. This means Dolores has no surviving biological descendants since 2014.

On 8 October 1982, she was the named life insurance and pension beneficiary and received about CAD 175,000 when 57-year-old Lakehead University professor Dr. Irving Abraham Taylor (1925 - 1982) was shot dead in Texas by Irving's brother Houston Police Officer Saul Taylor (1918 - 1999) in a dispute over a family inheritance. It is not clear what Dolores' connection was to Irving, especially since the Irving Taylor estate's executrix was a woman named C. Diane Taylor, of Thunder Bay, which would appear to make Diane likely to be Irving's wife. However, Irving was married five times and fits the type of man who would have interested Dolores, as he was a professor of psychology, so it is possible she was previously married to him. He lived in Thunder Bay from 1975 to 1982. The case became subject to a lawsuit in American Court since Irving is an American citizen and so his estate was subject to American taxes.

In 1975, Eva Spero, mother of Irving, Saul, and Lillian, died. Irving lived in Thunder Bay while his siblings in Texas were supposed to take care of their mother. But Irving sued his siblings for mismanaging her assets. On 8 October 1982 in the law office, as matters came to a head, Saul shot and killed Irving.

http://news.ourontario.ca/3171000/data?n=4

https://www.leagle.com/decision/1989155456khtcm149811261

http://news.ourontario.ca/3170981/data?n=377

http://tx.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19820729_0041499.TX.htm/qx

Her second husband was Dr. Allan Paivio (1925 - 2016), who was born in Thunder Bay and was later Professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario. She married him sometime after his first wife Kathleen Laura Blanche "Kay" Austin died after 50 years of marriage (circa 1945 - 1995). [7]

Coincidentally, in 1928 her second husband's father worked briefly on a paper called Vapaus (Finnish for "freedom"). In 1961 this same paper reported on Dolores' dance coaching at an event in Toronto; this would have been 30 years before she would have met her second husband.

With Dr. Allan she became stepmother to the five adult children from his previous 50-year marriage to Kay: Sandra, Anna Lee, Heather, Eric, Karina.

At 14:00 on Sunday 2 March 2014, she watched her only child Keven "take his final breath" at the University Hospital, London.