Albertine Lapensée

Albertine Lapensée, 1917, Montreal Star

 

Albertine Lapensée of Cornwall, Ontario, was 'the Star of Stars' of the Eastern Ladies' Hockey League, which briefly flourished during the First World War. She disappeared after the end of the war put an end to professional women's sports leagues in North America. A subject of many rumours, in fact she went to New York, became a cab driver and began to live as a man and used the name Albert. He married and adopted a daughter, and returned to the Cornwall area, ran a restaurant named "Chicky's" in Bainsville close to the 401 and the Quebec border  and died in 1963. He used the last name Smith, (not Smythe, as it appears in some sources) at least according to his obituary and his tombstone, which is in the middle of the east border of Cimetiere St-Joseph Cemetery in Lancaster, Ontario. The most extensive and up-to-date article about Albert is by Guillaume Piedboeuf for Radio-Canada (in French), available online here: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/recit-numerique/12820/albertine-lapensee-hockey-feminin-mystere-disparition-intersexualite