Alix, Alberta

Highway 601

Alix is a village in central Alberta, Canada that is northeast of Red Deer. Its village mascot is the Alix-Gator, who is featured prominently on many signs and businesses.

Originally, the settlement was called Toddsville after Joseph Todd. When the settlement was incorporated on June 3, 1907, it was named after Alexia Westhead, the first white woman settler of the community. (Alix was her nickname.) The first mayor of Alix was Robert F. Sanderson, who also owned and ran the general store.

Alix Westhead was friends with Irene Marryat and invited her to come for a visit in 1896. After meeting local farmer/Oxford graduate Walter Parlby, Irene became Mrs. Parlby and Alix became her new home. Irene Parlby was later one of the "Famous Five."

Irene Parlby's public life may be said to have begun in 1913 when she was chosen as secretary of the Alix Country Women's Club. Her public role greatly expanded when she was elected President of the United Farmers of Alberta's (UFA) Women's Auxiliary. She was the local MLA from 1921 to 1935. Her political life reached its greatest point when she was appointed a cabinet minister when the UFA formed the government of Alberta in 1921, a position she held for 14 years. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta in 1935. In 2009, after their deaths Parlby and the other members of the Famous Five were appointed honorary senators.