CHIGA
CHILDERHOSE
CHILTON
CHING
CHIRIAEFF
CHIRSTY
CHISHOLM
CHIGA o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-11 published
Pint-sized scrapper 'liked wrestling more than eating'
Stellar career in the ring was marred only by the near-miss loss
of an Olympic medal
By Tom HAWTHORN,
Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, December
11, 2003 - Page R11
He was a Regina stonecutter who used his strength to good effect
in the wrestling ring. Vern
PETTIGREW, who has died at 95, was
an athlete whose career was marred only by the near-miss loss
of an Olympic medal.
Competing for Canada, Mr.
PETTIGREW finished in fourth place
in the featherweight division of the freestyle-wrestling competition
at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The 28-year-old stonecutter with
a chiselled physique had dominated his Swedish opponent when
the match suddenly ended with Mr.
PETTIGREW disqualified for
using an illegal hold. The Swede went on to claim the bronze
medal, while Mr.
PETTIGREW spent the next 67 years contemplating
the unfairness of a verdict that denied him Olympic glory.
"One call made all the difference," he told The Regina Leader-Post
in 1996. "You can't quarrel, but it was terrible. It was a legal
hold, but they said it was illegal. I could have been standing
on the podium, but you can't cry about it."
Even before the devastating verdict, Canadian wrestlers had expressed
their unhappiness with the officiating at the tournament.
The team felt European officials, versed in the more rigid dictates
of the Greco-Roman discipline, were unfamiliar with the rules
of freestyle, or catch-as-catch-can, wrestling. For instance,
the Canadians relied heavily on leg holds, only to discover the
judges did not award points for the manoeuvre. Canada claimed
only one of 18 freestyle medals awarded at the 1936 Games, a
bronze for Joseph
SCHLEIMER, a lightweight from Toronto.
Mr. PETTIGREW retained his amateur status after returning from
the Games, continuing to dominate his weight class in Canada.
He stepped away from the mat as a competitor in 1940, having
won five national championships. He was also known as an eager
participant in exhibition matches, willing to take on all comers.
"I liked wrestling more than eating," he once said.
John Vernon
PETTIGREW was born on March 30, 1908, in Durham,
Ontario He moved with his family to Biggar, Saskatchewan., two
years later, before settling in Regina in 1919.
Wrestling was perhaps a natural sport for a pint-sized boy born
as part of a baker's dozen brood of
PETTIGREWs. He learned the
formal rules and tactics of the sport at the old Young Men's
Christian Association in Regina, "a stinkin' Y with a pool as
big as my kitchen," he told the Leader-Post.
Wrestling was conducted in a small basement room reached by a
long flight of stairs. "It was never washed. No wonder we got
big scabs on our knees."
He claimed his first Dominion featherweight crown in 1933 and
dominated his weight division in Saskatchewan, where he won 10
provincial championships.
He was accompanied on the long journey by train and ocean liner
to Germany in 1936 by fellow Regina wrestler George
CHIGA. A
210-pound (95-kilogram) heavyweight, Mr.
CHIGA dwarfed his featherweight
friend, who weighed closer to 134 pounds (61 kilograms).
One of the more memorable experiences in the athlete's camp was
Mr. PETTIGREW's first viewing of that science-fiction dream called
television. He also met the great American track athlete Jesse
OWENS, whose humility and friendliness in trying circumstances
Mr. PETTIGREW never forgot. Like many of the athletes, however,
Mr. PETTIGREW remained unaware of, or unconcerned about, the
intentions of the Nazi regime, for which the Games were a propaganda
exercise.
A first-round victory over Karel
KVACEK of Czechoslovakia impressed
Canadian
Press correspondent Elmer
DULMAGE, who wrote that Mr.
PETTIGREW "gives a pretty fair imitation of lightning."
The
Regina wrestler defeated Marco
GAVELLI of Italy and Hector
RISKE of Belgium, but was pinned at two minutes, 13 seconds of
a fourth-round match by Francis
MILLARD of the United States.
The controversial disqualification against Gosta
JONSSON of Sweden
eliminated Mr.
PETTIGREW from the medals. Kustaa
PIHLAJAMAKI
of Finland won the featherweight gold, while Mr.
MILLARD took
silver and Mr.
JONSSON got bronze.
Mr. PETTIGREW retired from wrestling not long after joining the
Regina fire department in 1939. He retired as battalion fire
chief in 1973. He then worked part-time at a local funeral home,
which years later would handle his remains.
Mr. PETTIGREW, who died in Regina on October 29, leaves a daughter
and two sons. He was predeceased by his wife Jean; by his eldest
son, Robert; and by all 12 of his siblings.
In all the years since leaving Berlin, he never quite overcame
the sense that he had been robbed of a chance for an Olympic
medal. "It always bugs you," he said.
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CHILDERHOSE o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-03-05 published
Leota Pauline
McIVOR
In loving memory of Leota Pauline
McIVOR who passed away peacefully at
Manitoulin Health Centre on Tuesday, February 25, 2003 at the age of 76 years.
Predeceased by beloved husband William "Bill"
McIVOR
(May 27, 1981.)
Cherished mother of Dan and wife Kirt (Kirsten). Loved grandmother of
Denise and special great grandmother of Karissa. Remembered by
brother and sisters: Blossom
ALLEMS,
Max
McGOVERN and Mary Ann
CHILDERHOSE.
Predeceased by Dell, Grant, Maurice
McGOVERN, Helen
DURDLE and Vida
McGOVERN.
Funeral
Service was held on Thursday,
February 27, 2003 at Island Funeral Home. Burial at Mountainview
Cemetery in the spring.
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CHILDERHOSE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-07 published
Keith Donald
CHILDERHOSE
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CHILTON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-05-07 published
Mary CHAMBERS
McQUAY
In loving memory of Mary Chambers
McQUAY,
April 9, 1916 to May 3, 2003.
Mary McQuay, a resident of Mindemoya, died at her residence on
Saturday, May 3, 2003 at the age of 87 years. She was born in
Peterborough, daughter of the late George and Mabel
(FOLEY)
TURNBULL.
Mary graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1942 and worked in hospitals
in Kingston, where she met Jack
McQUAY, who was an intern at the same
hospital. They married in 1944, and lived in Kingston before moving
to Mindemoya in 1947. Jack began his medical practice in Mindemoya
and Mary assisted for many years running the office.
Mary had a warm, friendly manner and enjoyed socializing with her
many Friends. She will be remembered for her dedication to her
family and to her community. Mary participated in and supported many
community activities over the years. She was accomplished in sewing,
knitting and baking, and often contributed her home-made items to
bazaars and bake sales. She volunteered for the Red Cross, the
Mindemoya Hospital Auxiliary, Meals on Wheels, and the ambulance
service. She enjoyed gardening, and participated in the Mindemoya
Horticultural Society flower shows in years past. She was active in
the local Women's Institute. An enthusiastic member of the Mindemoya
Curling Club, she continued curling until she was well into her 80s,
while in the summer she enjoyed golfing. She was an avid bridge
player in the local bridge club. She was a member of St. Francis of
Assisi Anglican Church, where she sang in the choir for many years,
and participated in the life of the parish through the Anglican
Church Women's group. Always interested in crafts, she created many
beautiful pieces in pottery and paper tole crafts.
Dearly loved and loving wife of Dr. Jack
McQUAY.
Loved mother of
Marilyn▼ (husband Martin
CHILTON) of Kingston, Paul (fiancée Marion
CARROLL) of Fort McMurray, Alta, Janice
McQUAY of Toronto and
Mindemoya and Betty
McQUAY of Toronto. Also survived by Athena
McQUAY of Edmonton. Proud grandmother of Peter
McQUAY,
Jane
HOEKSTRA
(husband Terry,) Stephen
McQUAY and Jim
CHILTON and great
grandchildren Ethan, Sydney and Liam. Dear sister of Reta
CONRAN,
Gladys MITCHELL (husband Charlie,) Bruce
TURNBULL (wife
Alice,)
Norma
RAYCRAFT (husband Glen,) Billie
McNEIL and brother-in-law Earl
HARMAN.
Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by
sisters and brothers Marjorie
McLEOD,
Walter
(Bud)
TURNBULL, Ted
TURNBULL,
Gwen
HARMAN and sister-in-law and brothers-in-law Marie
TURNBULL, Alan
McLEOD, Harold
CONRAN and Gene
McNEIL.
Friends called the Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Mindemoya on
Monday, May 5, 2003. The funeral service was held on Tuesday, May 6,
2003 with Reverend Canon Bain Peever officiating. Interment in Mindemoya
Cemetery. Culgin Funeral Home
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CHILTON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-12-17 published
John BATEMAN
McQUAY
In loving memory of John
BATEMAN
McQUAY,
October 11, 1921 to December 12, 2003.
John Bateman
McQUAY, a resident of Mindemoya, died peacefully on
Friday, December 12, 2003, in Mindemoya Hospital, at the age of 82 years.
He was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba,
son of the late
Doctor Russell and Gladys
(SAUNDERS)
McQUAY.
The family moved to
Mindemoya in 1934, where Russell set up a medical practice.
Following his father's footsteps, John graduated as a medical doctor
from the Faculty of Medicine at Queen's University in 1944. He
married Mary
TURNBULL in the same year, and interned in Kingston. In
1947 they moved to Mindemoya, where he joined his father's medical
practice. He quickly became known and loved as "Doctor Jack". After
his father became disabled in 1949, Doctor Jack served as the only
doctor in the area until 1970, when other doctors began to arrive.
He continued faithfully serving the community in full-time practice
until 1991, easing into retirement over the next decade.
Doctor Jack loved his vocation as family practitioner, and was dedicated
to his patients. He worked long hours, making hospital rounds in the
morning, seeing patients in the afternoon and sometimes in the
evening, and calmly handling emergencies at any hour of the day or
night. For many years he held a weekly clinic in West Bay. He often
visited patients in their homes, and in the days before ambulance
service, even brought patients to the hospital himself. He was a
skilled physician who performed many kinds of surgery, but his
greatest enjoyment was delivering babies, and he estimated he
delivered over 2000 babies in his career. He also served as coroner
for Manitoulin and the North Shore for 20 years. In 1991 the College
of Family Physicians of Canada presented him with a Special
Recognition Award for his outstanding service.
Doctor Jack will also be remembered for his dedication to his community.
As Chair of the Board of Central Manitoulin High School, he worked to
establish the Manitoulin Secondary School, serving all of the Island.
As founding member of the Manitoulin Centennial Board, he helped set
up the Manor in Little Current. He served as President of the
Mindemoya Area Chamber of Commerce in the 1960s. He was a founding
member of the Central Manitoulin Lions Club, and later received the
Lions' Melvin Jones Fellow award for dedicated humanitarian services.
He was a modest person, but he greatly appreciated this recognition.
He was also a founding member of the Mindemoya Curling Club. In
1994, the Carnarvon Township named him as Citizen of the Year, and in
September 2003, in ill health, he was particularly pleased when
Central Manitoulin Township presented him with its Senior of the Year
award. He and his wife Mary were members of St. Francis of Assisi
Anglican Church. For relaxation, Jack and Mary very much enjoyed
curling, playing bridge, and golfing. He loved playing the piano,
and his other hobbies included photography, stamp collecting,
gardening, swimming and sailing on Lake Mindemoya, and rug hooking.
Doctor Jack was devoted to his family, who will remember his
encouragement and loving support. Dearly loved and loving husband of
Mary McQUAY (predeceased.) Loved father of Marilyn (husband Martin
CHILTON) of Kingston, Paul (wife
Marion▲
CARROLL) of Fort McMurray,
Alta, Janice
McQUAY of Mindemoya and Betty
McQUAY of Toronto. Also
survived by Athena
McQUAY of Edmonton. Proud grandfather of Peter
McQUAY, Jane
HOEKSTRA (husband Terry), Stephen
McQUAY and Jim
CHILTON
and great grandchildren Ethan, Sydney and Liam. Dear brother of Mary
Alice THACKER of Ottawa, Ann
GAGE (husband James) of Hartford, Conn.,
Thomas McQUAY, wife
Barbara of Mindemoya. Predeceased by sister
Margaret KYDD and her husband Gordon, and brother-in-law Doug
THACKER.
Also survived by many nieces and nephews.
Friends called the St. Francis of Assisi Church, Mindemoya on
Tuesday, December 16. The funeral service will be conducted at the
church on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 at 2 p.m. with Reverend Canon Bain
Peever officiating. Culgin Funeral Home
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CHING o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-07 published
OXTOBY,
Willard
Gurdon
Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at Trinity College,
the University of Toronto. Widely respected for his contribution
to the understanding of other faiths, Will contributed to and
edited the widely read book World Religions. Born in 1933 in
Marin County, California, Will graduated Phi Beta Kappa from
Stanford University and earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies
at Princeton, with post-doctoral studies at Harvard Divinity
School. After working for two years in Jerusalem with the team
translating and interpreting the Dead Sea Scrolls, Will received
his ordination from the Presbyterian Church in California. In
his more than 40-year career as a professor, he taught at McGill,
Yale, the University of Toronto, and the College of William and
Mary. At the U of T, he launched the Graduate Centre for the
Study of Religion in 1976. Will married Layla
JURJI in 1958,
and together they had two children, David and Susan
OXTOBY.
Subsequent
to Layla's death from cancer in 1980, Will married Julia
CHING,
a renowned scholar of Chinese philosophy and religion, and recipient
of the Order of Canada. Julia, the adoptive mother of John
CHING,
who died of cancer in 2001. Will's loving care for both Layla
and Julia during their illnesses will be long remembered. Willard
OXTOBY died of cancer on March 6 in Toronto, at age 69. He will
be greatly missed by his daughters-in-law Julie
SCOTT and Helen
CHING, by grandchildren Duke and Tessa
OXTOBY and Erica and Michelle
CHING, and by his brother Lowell and sister Louise and their
families. Will touched the lives of many Friends and colleagues,
and will be remembered fondly by many former students. The family
will receive visitors at Morley Bedford Funeral Home, 159 Eglinton
Ave. W., on Sunday, March 9 from 2-5 p.m. Funeral Service will
beheld at Trinity College Chapel, 6 Hoskin Ave., on Wednesday,
March 12 at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made
in memory of Willard G.Oxtoby, c/o The Hospital for Sick Children
Foundation supporting Neurosurgery, 555 University Ave. Toronto,
M5G 1X8 or online at www.sickkids.ca.
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CHING o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-31 published
Scholar was 'hooked' on religion
Director of Centre for Religious Studies at the University of
Toronto was lauded for important introductory works
By Ron CSILLAG
Special to The Globe and Mail Monday, March 31,
2003 - Page R7
Like members of the clergy and their early epiphanies, scholars
of religion can often pinpoint the instant they decided to pursue
their calling.
For Willard
OXTOBY, one of the world's foremost students of comparative
religion and founding director of the University of Toronto's
Centre for Religious Studies, a defining moment came at the tender
age of five, when his father, a teacher of Old Testament at a
Presbyterian seminary, taught his son to memorize the 23rd psalm,
in Hebrew. One night, while an advanced Hebrew class met at the
Oxtoby home, young Willard was summoned, in his pyjamas, to recite
the psalm.
"See?" his father told the class. "Even a kid can do Hebrew,
so get on with it."
A decade later, another breakthrough: While accompanying his
father on a preaching visit, the elder
OXTOBY recounted one of
Jesus's parables, and then interrupted his exposition to say,
"Of course that was just a story. Can a thing be true that never
happened?"
About a year before his March 6 death in Toronto of colon cancer
at age 69, the son remembered the father's blunt words as a turning
point: "I can still recall the colour of paint on the wall at
that instant. And thanks to the right question coming at the
right time in my life, I've never had a problem personally handling
the symbolic dimensions of religion."
He did more than merely handle. Through over 40 years of probing,
analyzing, observing and writing in quantities that left colleagues
astonished, Prof.
OXTOBY bequeathed a legacy of scholarship that's
been described as passionate and exuberant. From Anabaptism to
Zoroastrianism, he dove headlong into all the world's major and
minor religious traditions and had the ability, so often demonstrated,
of connecting the dots between them.
"His command of detail was amazing," eulogized his former student,
Alan SEGAL, who now teaches Jewish studies at Barnard College
in New York, "all with specific knowledge of how it made religions
fit together and help explain what religion was all about."
A fixture at the University of Toronto's religion department
for 28 years, Prof.
OXTOBY was a vocal proponent of interfaith
dialogue, believing, as his friend, the Swiss Catholic renegade
Hans KUNG, that there will be no peace on the planet until there
is peace among its inhabitants' religions. In the specific case
of Islam, he called for the need to understand the faith's diversity:
"Lumping people of any group together, as if they're all alike,
is one basic strategy of prejudice."
Prof. OXTOBY knew his share of grief -- he was twice married
and twice widowed -- but he never lost his own footing. "He was
optimistic and curious about everything until his final day,
" said his son David, an executive with Ontario Power Generation
Inc.
Willard Gurdon
OXTOBY was born July 29, 1933, in Kentfield, Calif.,
just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, into a
family of scholars. Both his father and grandfather were ministers
and teachers of the Old Testament, and he spent a year between
high school and college accompanying his father on a sabbatical
to Europe and the Middle East. "I was hooked," he would recall.
"The world of the Bible, both its archeology and its current
events, came alive vividly."
After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in philosophy,
he completed masters and doctoral degrees within a year of each
other at Princeton, specializing in pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions.
In 1958, he married Layla
JURJI, the daughter of one of his Princeton
professors, and the couple spent two years in Jerusalem, with
Prof. OXTOBY as part of the team that studied the Dead Sea Scrolls.
His first teaching job was in Montreal, where he launched McGill
University's inaugural course on Judaism. But after a few years,
he realized he needed to explore the influence of modern-day
Iran on the religion of the Hebrews following their Babylonian
exile. He returned to school, this time to Harvard, to study
Zoroastrianism, an ancient faith born in Persia, possibly the
world's first monotheistic religion. So expert would he become
that he was made an honorary member of the Zoroastrian Society
of Ontario.
He taught at Yale University for five years before accepting
a full professorship at the University of Toronto's Trinity College
in 1971, a relationship that would last until his retirement
in 1999. In between were a slew of visiting professorships, appointments,
awards and fellowships, and authorship of dozens of entries for
dictionaries and encyclopedias on world religions.
Reprising his travels with his father, Prof.
OXTOBY took his
wife and teenage son and daughter, Susan, on an around-the-world
sabbatical beginning in 1976 to study Zoroastrians in the diaspora.
The clan lived in London, India and southeast Asia. The experience
"definitely changed my perspective on the transient nature of
North American culture," recalled Susan, director of programming
at Cinematheque Ontario.
Cancer claimed Prof.
OXTOBY's first wife in 1980. The following
year, he married Julia
CHING, a Shanghai-born onetime Catholic
nun and formidable scholar of Chinese religions and neo-Confucian
philosophy. The two formed an academic partnership at University
of Toronto that produced a slew of monographs and articles, before
cancer took Prof.
CHING in October, 2001.
Prof. OXTOBY was probably best known for two introductory volumes
he edited, World Religions: Western Traditions and World Religions:
Eastern Traditions, in which he wrote chapters on Christianity,
Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and general entries. Both have been hailed
for their lucidity -- examples of his ability to render complex
matters accessible without dumbing them down. He was working
on a condensed, one-volume version of the books at the time of
his death, along with a multitude of other projects.
In all, he travelled to more than 100 countries and studied over
a dozen languages, including Arabic, Ugaritic and Sanskrit.
He was fond of recounting several humorous firsts in his career:
That he was ordained a Presbyterian minister without actually
attending divinity school; that he gathered the inscriptional
data for his dissertation in one day; and that he smuggled pork
sausages into Israel.
A deeply religious man personally and a biblical scholar too,
Prof. OXTOBY never thought of himself as anything other than
a Christian -- but as a comparatavist, never an exclusivist:
"At no time have I ever supposed that God could not also reach
out to other persons in their traditions and communities as fully
and as satisfyingly as He has to me in mine," he concluded in
his 1983 book, The Meaning of Other Faiths. "My Christianity,
including my sense of Christian ministry, has commanded that
I be open to learn from the faith of others."
He extended that openness to his own funeral: "He wanted it to
be non-eucharistic," his son David said. "He wanted everyone
to feel welcome."
Prof. OXTOBY even had a snappy comeback to pious Christians who
asked whether he'd been saved: "Well, I'll be damned if I'm not."
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CHIRIAEFF o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-08-06 published
Linda STEARNS: 1937-2003
As ballet mistress and artistic director of the esteemed Montreal
company, she nurtured personality, flair and a risk-taking approach
to dance
By Paula CITRON
Wednesday,
August 6, 2003 - Page R5
In the cutthroat, competitive world of dance, Linda
STEARNS was
an anomaly. As artistic director of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens,
she never played games or held grudges. Whether good or bad news,
she bluntly told her dancers what they had to hear, and in return,
her open-door policy allowed them to vent their own feelings.
National
Ballet of Canada artistic director James
KUDELKA, who
spent almost a decade as a member of Les Grands Ballets, likens
her approach to wearing an invisible raincoat upon which unhappy
dancers spewed their venom. At the end of their tirades, she
would serenely remove the garment and say, "Now let's talk."
Linda STEARNS died at her home in Toronto on July 4, at age 65.
She was born into privilege on October 22, 1937. Her father,
Marshal, was an investment broker; her mother, Helen, was heavily
involved in charity work. The family lived in the posh Poplar
Plains area of central Toronto, where Ms.
STEARNS attended Branksome
Hall.
Despite their wealth, the
STEARNS children (Linda, Nora and Marshal)
were expected to earn their own livings. Helen
STEARNS had studied
dance in her youth, but a career was never an option. When eldest
daughter Linda showed a strong talent, history might have repeated
itself had not Marshal Sr. set aside his reservations after seeing
his daughter perform.
After graduating from high school, Ms.
STEARNS went to London
and New York for advanced training. It was the great Alexandra
Danilova, one of Ms.
STEARNS's
New
York teachers, who pointed
the young dancer in the direction of the upstart Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens. Ms.
STEARNS joined Les Grands in 1961, and was promoted
to soloist in 1964. In a Who's Who of Entertainment entry, Ms.
STEARNS was once listed as joining the company in 1861, and she
liked to joke that, at 103 years, she held the record for the
longest time spent in the corps de ballet. In fact, one of Ms.
STEARNS's hallmarks was her sense of humour, much of it at her
own expense.
Les Grands was known for taking dancers who did not necessarily
have perfect ballet bodies, but had personality and flair, a
policy Ms.
STEARNS continued during her own administration.
Although Ms.
STEARNS had very unballetic, low-arched feet, she
was a fine classical dancer. She excelled, however, in the dramatic
repertoire: Mother Courage in Richard Kuch's The Brood, or the
title role in Brydon Paige's Medea. In later years, while teaching
and coaching, Ms.
STEARNS wore high heels to conceal her hated
low arches -- while showing off her attractive ankles.
Her performing career was cut short in 1966 when artistic director
Ludmilla CHIRIAEFF recognized that Ms.
STEARNS would make a brilliant
ballet mistress, and by 1969, Ms.
STEARNS was exclusively in
the studio. In fact, giving up performing was one of the great
disappointments of her life, although she did in time acknowledge
that she had found her true destiny. Ms.
STEARNS's astonishingly
keen eye allowed her to single out, in a corps de ballet of moving
bodies, every limb that was out of position. She could also sing
every piece of music, which saved a lot of time, because she
didn't have to keep putting on the tape recorder. Because of
her intense musicality, Ms.
STEARNS also insisted that the dancers
not just be on the count, but fill every note with movement.
Ms. STEARNS loved playing with words -- she was a crossword-puzzle
addict, for example -- and gave the dancers nicknames, whether
they liked them or not. Catherine
LAFORTUNE was Katrink, Kathy
BIEVER was Little Frog, Rosemary
NEVILLE was Rosie Posie, Betsy
BARON was Boops, and Benjamin
HATCHER was Benjamino, to name
but a few. One who escaped this fate was Gioconda
BARBUTO, simply
because Ms.
STEARNS loved rolling out the word "G-I-O-C-O-N-D-A"
in its full Italian glory. The dancers, in turn, called her Lulubelle,
Mme. Gozonga and
La Stearnova or, if they were feeling tired,
cranky and hostile -- and were out of earshot -- Spoons (for
her non-arched feet) and even less flattering names. As reluctantly
as she became ballet mistress, Ms.
STEARNS became artistic director,
first as one of a triumvirate in 1978 with Danny
JACKSON and
Colin McINTYRE (when Les Grands and Brian
MacDONALD came to an
abrupt parting of the ways;) then with Jeanne
RENAUD in 1985
and finally on her own in 1987. She retired from Les Grands in
1989. Both Mr.
JACKSON and Mr.
McINTRYE still refer to Ms.
STEARNS
as the company's backbone.
These were the famous creative years that included the works
of Mr. KUDELKA, Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Nacho Duato and George
Balanchine. Les Grands toured the world performing one of the
most exciting and eclectic repertoires in ballet. It was a company
that nurtured dancers and choreographers, many of whom reflected
Ms. STEARNS's risk-taking, innovative esthetic.
She also had time to mentor choreographers outside the company,
including acclaimed solo artist Margie
GILLIS.
Her post-Grands
career included writing assessments for the Canada Council, setting
works on ballet companies, coaching figure skating, and most
recently, becoming ballet mistress for the Toronto-based Ballet
Jörgen. When she was diagnosed with both ovarian and breast cancer
two years ago, she continued her obligations to Ballet Jörgen
until she was no longer able, never letting the dancers know
how ill she was.
Ms. STEARNS loved huge dogs -- or what Ms.
GILLIS refers to as
mountains with fur -- and always had at least two. Her gardens
were magnificent, as was her cooking. Her generosity was legendary,
whether inviting 20 people for Christmas dinner, or hosting the
wedding reception for dancers Andrea
BOARDMAN and Jean-Hugues
ROCHETTE at her tastefully decorated Westmount home. After leaving
Montreal, whether, first, at her horse farm in Harrow, Ontario,
or at the one-room schoolhouse she lovingly renovated near Campbellville,
northwest of Toronto, former colleagues were always welcome.
She continued to keep in touch with her dancers, sending notes
in her beautiful, distinctive handwriting. Her love of sports
never left her, and after a hard day in the studio, she would
relax watching the hockey game. Religion also filled her postdance
life, with Toronto's Anglican Grace-Church-on-the-Hill at its
epicentre. Ms.
STEARNS was very discreet in her private life,
although another disappointment is that neither of two long relationships
resulted in marriage or children.
Ms. STEARNS was always ruthlessly self-critical, always striving
for perfection, never convinced she had rehearsed a work to its
full potential. As a result, she never made herself the centre
of her own story. Her homes, for example, did not contain photographs
glorifying the career of Linda
STEARNS.
Only at the end of her
days, as she faced death with the same grace with which she had
faced life, was she finally able to appreciate how many lives
she had touched, and accept her outstanding achievements with
Les
Grands
Ballets. Linde
HOWE-
BECK, former dance critic for
the Montreal Gazette, sums up Ms.
STEARNS perfectly when she
says that she was all about love -- for her Friends and family,
for life, but most of all, for dance.
Paula CITRON is dance critic for The Globe and Mail.
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CHIRSTY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-14 published
CARLIN,
Agnes
Kathryn
Died quietly at home surrounded by her family on Sunday, October
12, 2003 at age 56. Agnes is survived by her husband Richard
LATHWELL, her sister Eva
CHIRSTY and her brother Steve
GRISZBACHER.
Resting at the Ogden Funeral Home, 646 St. Clair Avenue West
(West of Bathurst) on Wednesday afternoon from 4-8 p.m. Funeral
Mass on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. in St. Clare Catholic Church
(St. Clair. East of Dufferin). Cremation to follow.
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CHISHOLM o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-27 published
CHISHOLM,
Thomas
Huston
Died, after a short battle with cancer, at the Grey Bruce Regional
Health Centre, Owen Sound, on Tuesday, December 23, 2003. Tom
CHISHOLM of Southampton at the age of 37 years. Beloved son of
Marjorie CHISHOLM (née
HUSTON) of Southampton and the late Bruce
CHISHOLM. Dear brother of Susan and her husband Greg
SCHULTZ
of Burlington. Proud uncle of Mackenzie and Huston. Tom will
be sadly missed by his family and by his many Friends of the
community. Cremation. No visitation. Private Family Services
will be conducted through the Eagleson Funeral Home, Southampton,
(519) 797-2085. Tom's family wish to extend their extreme gratitude
to those who cared for Tom with much love and compassion. Expressions
of Remembrance to the Bruce County Museum and Archives, Southampton
Ontario. Condolences may be forwarded to the family through www.eaglesonfuneralhome.com.
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