ROCH o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-03-01 published
ROCH,
Ernst
Suddenly on February 21st, 2003 at the age of 74. Survived by
his loving family; Willa, Helene, Ursula (Michael), Uli and Barbara
(Hugh). Cherished grandfather of Leo, Emil, Finnian, Anna and
Ian. Dear brother of the late John (Grete) and
of Joseph (Denise).
Beloved uncle of Heidi (Robert), Fred (Anna), Monique (Samba)
and Deborah (Joel). He will also be sadly missed as godfather
and great-uncle. An intimate family farewell was privately held
February 24th. A memorial gathering to celebrate Ernst's life
will be planned for family and Friends later in the spring. In
his memory, a donation to to the charity of your choice would
be appreciated by the family. Condolences may be received at
www.kanefetterly.qc.ca
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ROCH o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-12 published
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON,
Katherine
(Kae)
PLAUNT
Died peacefully at York Extendicare, Sudbury, on May 9, 2003
in her 90th year, with her children at her side. Cherished daughter
of the late Mildred and W.B.
PLAUNT.
Predeceased by her loving
husband, Dr. R. MacKay
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON in 1981. Dearly remembered by
her children: Andy (Mandy
TAILOR/TAYLOR) of Toronto, Kathie
THOMAS
(Richard,)
Judy MAKI (Tom) and Robin (Mary Lou
McKINLEY) of Sudbury. Adored
Nana to Allen
DAY (Erin
CAMERON), Andy
DAY (Carla
GIUSTO), Kathy,
Jodi, Alex, Nikki, Fraser, Michael, Jamie, Scott and great-grandmother
to Alexander. Beloved sister of Marian
MAHAFFY
(Guy, predeceased,)
Bill PLAUNT, predeceased (Agnes,) Helen
VOLLANS
(Maurice, predeceased,)
Donald PLAUNT, predeceased, Royal Canadian Air Force, World War
2 and Jean
BENNESS, predeceased (Barry, predeceased.) Loving
sister-in-law to George
WRIGHT of Hanover, Ruth
LAWS of Almonte,
Murray THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON of Ottawa and Muriel
VALENTIN of Stuttgart, Germany.
Auntie Kae will be fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews
and their families in the
PLAUNT and
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON clans.
Born in Renfrew on April 29, 1914, she moved to Sudbury in 1924
where her father established his lumber business. She attended
Central Public and Sudbury High School, Branksome Hall and graduated
from the School of Nursing, University of Toronto, in 1937. After
working in Toronto in public health, she returned to Sudbury
the following year where she met and married Mac.
Kae loved to golf and curl, and took an avid interest in her
family's history. She was very talented in the traditional arts,
enjoying knitting, quilting and cooking. As an active community
volunteer, she belonged to the Imperial Order of the Daughters
of the Empire where she was Regent and to the Salvation Army
as an organizer for the annual fund raising drive and board member.
She loved to travel with her husband and Friends, but her favourite
place in the world was Lake Pogamasing where her parents established
a family camp in 1941 and where she spent every summer with her
family. She loved to entertain her Friends and her children's
Friends, especially at Pog. We were blessed to have a mother
and grandmother who stressed the importance of family, community
and responsibility. She loved to bring people together and do
things for them, to share her interests and her talents, she
was kind and considerate to all she met, and along with Dad taught
us how to dance and have fun.
Special thanks from the family to Dr. Reg
KUSNIERCZYK and his
staff, the Walford staff and Dr.
ROCH and staff on the fifth
floor of York Extendicare for their devoted and caring attention
to Mother.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to
Young Men's Christian Association Sudbury.
Memorial service in the R.J. Barnard Chapel, Jackson and Barnard
Funeral Home, 233 Larch Street, Sudbury, Tuesday, May 13th, 2003
at 11: 30 a.m. Cremation followed by interment at Lake Pogamasing.
Friends may call 6-9 p.m. Monday, or gather in the chapel after
11 a.m. Tuesday.
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ROCHETTE 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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ROCHON o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-01-22 published
Albert Jeffrey
MICHIE
(United
Steel
Workers of America Local 2784 Associate Member,
RCL #43)
In Oshawa on Sunday, January 12, 2003 in his 65th year.
Beloved husband of Carrollynn. Predeceased by his wife
Theresa
ROCHON.
Loving father of Carol
FILLION, David
MICHIE (Sherri), Louise (Sue)
MAY, Danny
MICHIE (Andrea). Step father of Candy
SHELLEY, George
ATKINSON
(Dianne) and Paul
ATKINSON (Jennifer.) Dear brother-in-law
of Bernard and Linda
JONES.
Lovingly remembered by his grandchildren
James, Matthew, Tara, Tanya, Jennifer, Cheyenne, Chantelle, Amanda,
Philip, Tess, Lisa, Corey, Renne, Danielle, Eric and by his great
granddaughter Jennifer. Predeceased by his brothers Bill, John
"Bud", Orton, Roland, Austin and Edward. Sadly missed by all of his
family and Friends. Funeral service was held at Thornton Cemetery
Chapel on Saturday, January 18, 2003. Cremation. Armstrong Funeral Home Oshawa.
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