OLIVER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-01-08 published
OLIVER
-In loving memory of a dear son Roger, who passed away January 10, 1998.
-Mom and Dad.
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OLIVER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-01-15 published
OLIVER
-In loving memory of a dear son Roger, who passed away January 10, 1998.
There will always be a heartache
And many a silent tear
But always the precious memories
Of the days when you were here
We hold you close within our hearts
And there you will remain
To walk with us throughout our lives
Until we meet again.
-Mom and Dad.
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OLIVER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-04-16 published
Roy Allen GREEN "
Squirt"
In loving memory of Roy Allen
GREEN on Monday, April 7, 2003,at the age of 54 years.
Cherished husband of Darlene (née
OLIVER.)
Loved by children Lori and
husband Terry
CASE of Little Current, Jeff and Tanya of Sault Ste.
Marie, Derek and fiancée Lesley of Espanola. Special grandpa of
Braedan and Brady
CASE.
Will be greatly missed by sister Linda and
husband Ron
BOWERMAN of Sheguiandah, brother Gary and wife
Nicole of
Little
Current, predeceased by sister Norma
LLOYD (husband Gerald,)
and brother Ronnie (wife
Carol
WESSEL.)
Predeceased by parents
Charles and Edna. Fondly remembered by parents-in-law Ting and Pee Wee
OLIVER and brothers and sisters-in-law Mike and wife
Betty
OLIVER,
Wanda
& husband Lou
TROVARELLO, predeceased by Roger
OLIVER (wife
June.)
Uncle to numerous nephews and nieces.
Visitation was from 2-4 pm and 7-9 pm Wednesday, April 9, 2003.
Funeral Service was held at 2: 00 pm Thursday, April 10, 2003, both at
Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Little Current.
Cremation with burial in Holy Trinity Cemetery at a later date.
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OLIVER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-02 published
Laurence OLIVER
By Catherine
OLIVER
Friday,
May 2, 2003 - Page A22
Born August 3, 1901, in Eniskillen Township, county Lambton,
Ontario. Died December 28, 2002, in Petrolia, Ontario, of natural
causes, aged 101.
Those of us who were lucky enough to be born in Petrolia, Ontario,
or the surrounding area refer to ourselves proudly as "hard-oilers."
Laurence was born on a farm on the 12th line of Eniskillen Township
he was a real hard-oiler.
He remembered the hard work on the farm, especially pushing the
plow up the hills behind the horse. He told me that maybe if
the farm had been flatter, he might have stayed on and made his
living on the farm. He did like the making of maple syrup in
the spring, probably because he had such a sweet tooth. As long
as he could drive, he always went to the maple-syrup festival
in Alvinston each spring, and would buy big gallon tins of maple
syrup to share with us.
He completed Grade 8, but did not go further in school. He worked
on the farm and in the 1920s, he was out West on the harvest
excursions threshing grain; he also worked on the Great Lakes
boats. In 1922 he followed the Petrolia tradition of leaving
to look for work in the oil fields and left for California where
he remained until 1926 learning to drill for oil.
From 1927 to 1930, he was in Venezuela, where he told me he drilled
the third oil well in Lake Maracaibo. At that time, it was quite
common for Petrolia men to be overseas in the oil business.
Laurence spent most of the 1930s in Trinidad, also drilling for
oil. He was a young man with some money, and I think he enjoyed
himself. Margaret
McDONALD, who became his wife (and my mother,)
visited mutual Friends in Trinidad during this time, and there
are some snapshots of the two of them together, looking quite
friendly.
During the Second World War, he drilled in Canada, and he remembered
the 40-below-zero weather drilling in the open pit iron mines
in northern Ontario. They drilled the holes for blasting to get
the iron ore out for the war effort.
From 1946 to 1966 he was employed by International Water Supply,
drilling for water. He got married in 1946; I was born in 1948.
He was briefly in Israel in 1952 but was mostly in Venezuela
during the 1950s. My mother and I visited him there three times.
During the 1960s he was in Ontario, and retired from International
Water Supply in 1966.
After this retirement, the United Church sent him to India for
a year to drill water wells as part of a food-production program.
I believe it was the only time he had missionary listed as his
occupation on a visa. He had short-term jobs in Guyana, Venezuela,
and Niger. He finally retired for a second and final time in
After this second retirement, he travelled to visit me in exotic
spots like Wawa, Ontario, and he also travelled to Las Vegas
to gamble; his favourite game was blackjack. He was part of a
regular poker game in the back of one of the restaurants in Sarnia
for several years. I can well imagine he must have been a good
poker player, since the Olivers were not noted for showing emotion.
He surprised his physician by recovering almost completely from
a broken hip at the age of 93; he continued to walk uptown to
the post office and Tim Hortons, with the aid of only a cane.
He also continued to drive until he was 96.
Laurence was the cause of a wonderful party for his 100th birthday
in August, 2001. We chartered a boat and cruised the St. Clair
River with more than 100 Friends and relatives. After the party,
he paid me the best possible compliment by telling me it was
just like the old days.
My dad was a very honest, hardworking man. As far as we know,
he was the last of the drillers who left Petrolia to drill all
over the world. Thus his death truly marks the end of an era.
Catherine OLIVER is the daughter of Laurence
OLIVER.
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OLIVER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-04 published
Recollections of an artist whose absence is palpable
By OLIVER
Girling,
Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, December
4, 2003 - Page R11
Lynn DONOGHUE loved to paint pictures, and her favourite subject
was the human form.
A spiritual child of the influential David Mirvish Gallery of
the seventies, her work was championed by the gallery's owner
as well as its director, Alkis
KLONARIDIS, when he later opened
on his own. This was noteworthy because the Mirvish Gallery's
domain had been modernist, abstract painting and sculpture, to
the exclusion of almost everything else.
But Lynn's paintings were a kind of hybrid, marrying the flatness
and luminous colour of abstract painting to whimsical representations
of the figure and face. For painting in Toronto, this was an
important step, a bridge between card-carrying abstractionists
like Ric Evans and Jan Poldaas and unabashed figurative artists
then just starting, like the ChromaZone and Republic collectives
and Joanne Tod. Still, historicism doesn't explain or do justice
to the brand new species she invented and practised with lifelong
consistency.
The subjects of her pictures seem sort of animated, the result
of asymmetries that could only be achieved with a live sitter.
Not for her the "95-per-cent Kodak, 5-per-cent art" method (Godard's
ironic deflation of cinema's pretensions); unlike other figurative
painting contemporaries, her use of photographs as aids was minimal.
The result was people in their gawky particularity who look like
they're in the middle of living, rather than idealized, Platonic
masks. (Look at her portrait of the company Dancemakers when
you're in the lobby of the Premiere Dance Theatre in Toronto).
Lucian FREUD needed four sittings from the Queen for his 6-by-10-inch
portrait; Lynn needed at least 20 for her 5-by-6-foot works.
I know, because I sat for her twice. The first time, in New York
in the eighties, she gave me turquoise pants and punked-out hair
in the buttoned-down nineties, I'm more Jimmy Olson, cub reporter.
Both were exaggerations; she relished using clothing as a sensual
and imagist extension of personality.
The experience was energizing and relaxing. Talking non-stop
as she painted, and constantly requiring a response, there was
no danger of my going slack-jawed (this may be another part of
the animation you see in her paintings).
Erudite about art history, she talked about artists and shows,
"the biz," she called it; gossiped big-time; interspersed advice
recipes; homilies. I felt honoured to be invited into such an
intimate situation, to be present at the creation of a work.
The final portraits feel to me like the residue of our conversations,
souvenirs of 20 or so encounters at two junctures in our lives.
A prolific artist (http: //www.lynndonoghue.com), there is still
new work to look forward to. Rumours also exist of a body of
watercolour, male nudes that she was working on which, if true,
would bring her back to her origins, when she painted lumpen,
youthful abstract painters in their full-bodied glory.
In the art community, we're mourning a much-loved friend and
colleague. I don't anticipate meeting her ghost at Dundas and
Roncesvalles, our common Toronto neighbourhood; on the contrary,
it's her absence that's palpable -- her voice especially. It
will be felt by her Friends in various communities, at the Gato
Nero on College Street where she had morning coffee for 20 years,
at a particular pub on Bloor Street, at the high-Anglican church
where she prayed.
Absence has always been one of the clearest motifs in Lynn
DONOGHUE's
work. When abstraction and representation meet, colours, forms
and lines that converge provisionally as a face remember a person
not present.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, 477 Manning Ave., Toronto.
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OLIVIER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-16 published
Father figure to the Canadian stage
British-trained Stratford character actor never craved starring
roles
By Allison
LAWLOR,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Thursday, October
16, 2003 - Page R11
For
Mervyn "
Butch"
BLAKE, entering a theatre was a magical experience,
something he never tired of during an acting career that spanned
close to three-quarters of a century. Mr.
BLAKE, one of the most
loved members of the Stratford Festival Company, died on October
9 at a Toronto nursing home after a long illness. He was 95.
"Theatre seems to give me life," Mr.
BLAKE said in 1994. "I just
feel marvellous when I enter the theatre... it's one of the things
which keeps me going."
Over his long stage life that included 42 consecutive seasons
with the Stratford Festival of Canada, Mr.
BLAKE "had the distinction
of playing in every single play of Shakespeare's," said Richard
MONETTE,
Stratford's artistic director.
"He had a great life in the theatre," Mr.
MONETTE said.
Adored by both audiences and fellow actors, the veteran actor
was known across Canada for his enormous talent and generosity
of spirit. When he wasn't working at Stratford, he acted on the
country's major stages and in television and film.
For seven seasons, he toured with the Canadian Players, bringing
professional theatre to smaller towns. And in 1987, he won a
Dora Mavor Moore Award for best performance in a featured role
in a production of Saturday, Sunday, Monday at what was then
called CentreStage (now CanStage).
"Everyone loved Butch without exception," said John
NEVILLE,
a former Stratford's artistic director.
Mervyn BLAKE was born on November 30, 1907, in Dehra Dun, India,
where his father was a railway executive.
His father wanted him to become an engineer but after falling
in love with the theatre, Mr.
BLAKE was able to persuade his
father to allow him to study at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art. In 1932, he graduated and soon made his professional stage
debut at the Embassy Theatre in London
During the Second World War, he served in the British Army as
a driver. It was during the war years that he is said to have
got his nickname Butch. A witness to the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, Mr.
BLAKE was present at the liberation of
the camp by British troops. It was an experience that haunted
him for the rest of his life.
At the war's end, he returned to England and to the stage. He
married actress Christine
BENNETT and spent the years between
1952 and 1955 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
There he worked with many of the great British actors such as
Sir Laurence
OLIVIER, Sir Michael
REDGRAVE and Dame Peggy
ASHCROFT.
Despite his success on the British stage, he decided to join
the Stratford Festival of Canada, then in its fifth season. With
his family in tow, Mr.
BLAKE moved to Canada and in 1957 appeared
in a production of Hamlet with Christopher
PLUMMER in the title
role.
"He wasn't a leading actor," said actor and director Douglas
CAMPBELL. "He was a supporting player. As a supporting player
you couldn't get better."
Mr. BLAKE always saw himself as a character actor who never cared
that much about starring roles, said Audrey
ASHLEY, a former
Ottawa
Citizen theatre critic and author of Mr.
BLAKE's 1999
biography With Love from Butch.
"He was one of those actors you never had to worry about," Ms.
ASHLEY said. "You knew Butch was always going to do a good job."
Known for his unfailing good nature and even temper, he enjoyed
re-telling gaffes he had made on stage. Mr.
MONETTE remembers
one performance where Mr.
BLAKE appeared on stage as the Sea
Captain in Twelfth Night. The character Viola asks him, "What
country, Friends, is this?" And instead of responding "This is
Illyria, lady." Out of his mouth popped, "This is Orillia."
To the younger actors at Stratford, Mr.
BLAKE was a father figure.
"He was very fond of the young actors and would take them under
his wing," Ms.
ASHLEY said.
Stephen RUSSELL remembers arriving at Stratford for his first
season in the mid-1970s. He was placed in the same dressing room
as Mr. BLAKE, an experience he still holds close to his heart.
"He was one of the most generous human beings," Mr.
RUSSELL said.
One of the areas Mr.
BLAKE was most helpful in was teaching fellow
actors how to apply stage makeup. He loved makeup and on his
dressing-room table he had an old rabbit's foot that he would
use to apply his face powder, Mr.
RUSSELL said.
Aging didn't stop him from applying his own elaborate makeup.
Playing the role of old Adam in As You Like It required him to
go through the same makeup ritual when he was 70 years old as
it did when he performed the role years earlier as a much younger
man.
Aside from the stage, one of Mr.
BLAKE's passions was cricket.
During his first season in Stratford, he played on the festival's
team and was responsible for starting a friendly, annual cricket
match against the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Each season, members of the two acting companies would come together
for a civilized afternoon of cricket and tea. The Stratford team
still goes by the name of Blake's Blokes.
In honour of his talent and dedication to the theatre, Mr.
BLAKE
was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in May, 1995.
"When he entered, the stage just lit up," Mr.
RUSSELL said.
Mr. BLAKE leaves his wife
Christine
BENNETT; children Andrew
and Bridget; and stepson Tim
DAVISSON.
Details of a memorial service to be held in Stratford, Ontario,
have yet to be announced.
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OLIVIER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-24 published
Fight master set standards for stage combat
Canadian Press, Wednesday, December 24, 2003 - Page R9
Stratford, Ontario -- Patrick (Paddy)
CREAN, a longtime fight
director at the Stratford Festival who set international standards
on staging combat in theatre, died Monday after an illness. He
was 93.
Mr. CREAN, who was a competitive fencer, began choreographing
fights in 1932 when he was working in his native England as an
actor in The Legends of Don Juan. From then on he was frequently
hired to stage fight scenes in theatre and movies such as The
Master of Ballantree and The Sword of Sherwood Forest. He worked
with actors including Paul
SCOFIELD,
Laurence
OLIVIER, Trevor
HOWARD, Alec
GUINNESS, Douglas
FAIRBANKS Jr. and Errol
FLYNN,
often acting as
FLYNN's stunt double in movies.
Mr. CREAN first came to the Stratford Festival in 1962 to be
fight arranger for a staging of Macbeth and ended up by making
Stratford his home. He remained as festival fight director until
1983, arranging combat scenes for such demanding productions
as The Three Musketeers. He continued to work as an actor, sometimes
taking small roles in shows for which he had done fight arranging
and also performing a one-man show, The Sun Never Sets. A funeral
will be held Saturday in Stratford.
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