If you ever drove north on Highway 59, you may have gotten a wave from James and Nelson Starr.
For 20 years, the brothers would spent their days sitting in chairs along a stretch the highway that goes through the Brokenhead Ojibway First Nation.
Nelson passed away 11 years ago and James moved into a Winnipeg care home.
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John Bear, a resident of the the First Nation, felt an urge to honour James and Nelson in his own way, after overhearing a conversation at the gas station.
“They said somebody should do something for these Starr boys. So, I decided to make a big red chair for them,” he said.
Bear said he used wood from an old deck that was given to him by a family member to make a big chair.
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The big chair is about 6.5′ tall, and 5’wide.
It sits where the brothers used to spend their days greeting drivers headed north, right near the location of the South Beach Casino.
“It’s a wonderful feeling, just to sit here. You can almost feel the spirits of the Starr boys still here,” he said.
Across the street there is a second chair, outside the Wavers convenience store.
That place has honoured the brothers by taking the name Wavers, and featuring silouettes of the well-known greeters.
Bear, who also built the second chair, said the store manager came up with the idea.
“He thought there was two gentleman, and might was well have two chairs,” Bear said.
The Wavers chair is about a an hour drive, or 70 kilometres, north of Winnipeg.
“I’m keeping the legacy going for the Starr boys and their community, because these Starr boys, they put us on the map.”
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