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GRICE - All Categories in OGSPI
GRICHTING o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-08-11 published
DEGUERRE,
Edward
Ross
Belfry
In his 83rd year, died peacefully surrounded by his family at
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre - K Wing after a long illness
on Thursday, August 9, 2007. Born in Newmarket, the second youngest
of the late Ross and Frances
DEGUERRE.
Predeceased by his first
wife Virginia
REID. He will be remembered with great love by
his children Peter (Julia)
DEGUERRE,
Vicki
(Keith)
CARRUTHERS,
Christopher (Julie)
DEGUERRE and very special grandfather to
Zachary, Oliver, Madelaine, Lindsay, Carlyn, Deanna, Olivia and
Charlotte. He will be missed by his brothers and sisters, Frederick
(Betty) DEGUERRE,
Frances
YATES and Diana
McVITTY and predeceased
by his brother Daniel
DEGUERRE. He was the fond uncle of Carol
(Leon) BROAD,
Douglas
(Erika)
DEGUERRE, Dianne (Alan)
WOODS,
Gregory (Sharon)
YATES,
Suzanne
(Rodney)
DARWIN, Brian (Diane)
McVITTY, Patricia (Reinhard)
GRICHTING, Susan (John)
VINCENT
and Catherine
McVITTY
(Regan
TAKENAKA) and many cousins, great
nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his second wife Mary Ursula
CRAFT and sadly missed by her children Michael (Jackie)
CRAFT,
Elizabeth (Wayne
ALLSIP), Paul (Giselle)
CRAFT and Steven
CRAFT,
their children, and a very special friend Jane Morris. The family
wishes to thank all of the marvellous caring staff/good Friends
of Sunnybrook Hospital K2 Centre. A funeral service will be held
to celebrate Edwards's life at Eglinton St. George United Church,
35 Lytton Boulevard (at Duplex Avenue), on Thursday, August 16
at 1: 00 p.m. Reception to follow at The Granite Club, 2350 Bayview
Avenue. As an expression of sympathy, a charitable donation to
the Canadian Cancer Society would be appreciated by the family.
'Ed will always be remembered by his love, kindness and generous
spirit.'
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GRIECO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-12-05 published
GRIECO,
Shelley
Wife, mother, buby, sister, crossword puzzle maven. Born April 17,
1934, in Toronto. Died May 3 in Toronto of heart and diabetes
complications, aged 73.
By Terrye KUPER,
Page L8
We were born in the 1930s, first Beverley, then Shelley, then
me, all within a little over three years. Our mother, Libbye,
was a strong and healthy, progressive-minded woman and she raised
us single-handedly to think for ourselves.
She referred to us as her three pearls, but in reality we were
three peas in a pod. The formidable
SWADRON sisters, known for
our tenacity and even our chutzpah.
Growing up, it didn't take long to realize that Shelley was the
smartest, most talented and prettiest of our mob. She was popular
with everyone who came in contact with her, and could wrap anyone
around her little finger as she smiled and batted her big brown
eyes. I learned that to get our mom's okay, Bev and I had to
be on Shelley's good side.
When Shelley decided to marry out of our Jewish faith in the
1950s, it was a rare and daring move. The rest of her life she
kept a keen ear open for any cultural slur directed at her or
her family. She never tolerated discrimination and would nip
it in the bud.
Shelley had a big heart and shared it with many, but her two
jewels, Ginnie and Frank, got the biggest share. She plied her
love generously upon her children. When they found their partners,
Bill and Marilyn, she learned to love them, too. But she had
her heart set on a bigger booty - her six grandchildren. She
was buby to them, and bragged about their achievements, and was
by their bedsides when they were ill. Shelley was always there
for her family.
I often marvelled at how she painstakingly sequined Ginnie's
skating dresses. And she spent many hours at her stove making
pasta, meat dishes and other goodies - not for her, because she
wasn't even allowed to eat some of these delicacies, but for
her children and grandchildren. Sometimes she even made gnocchi
for my grandchildren, but they had to pay with a kiss and a thank
you, if not in person then over the phone.
It is our custom to hand out coins to children during Hanukkah,
and Shelley made it her pleasure to fulfill this practice. Every
year at Hanukkah she purchased beautiful sets of coins from the
Canadian mint for all the grandchildren in the family. Even in
the last several years, as Shelley's health deteriorated, her
love for her family never did.
How do you judge a person's life? Not everyone is a notation
in history. To me, Shelley's life may be judged by her family
and Friends and by our feeling of loss. Our lives were enriched
by knowing her.
Terrye KUPER is Shelley's younger sister.
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GRIECO - All Categories in OGSPI
GRIEN o@ca.on.grey_county.hanover.the_post 2007-11-30 published
KUPFERSCHMIDT,
Esther
(SCHNEIDER)
Esther KUPFERSCHMIDT, of Mildmay, passed away at Brucelea Haven
on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 in her 80th year. Esther
(SCHNEIDER,)
beloved wife of the late Francis
KUPFERSCHMIDT.
Dear sister of Sister Germaine
SCHNEIDER of Waterdown, Luella
FORTNEY of Deemerton and Clayton
SCHNEIDER of Mildmay.
Fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by
her brothers Oscar, Peter, Gilbert and Stanley, and her sister,
Hilda GRIEN.
Visitation was at the Greg Roberts Funeral Home, Mildmay on Friday
from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. with a vigil service at 8: 45 pm.
Funeral
Mass was conducted by Fr. W.T.
SEHL in Sacred Heart Church,
Mildmay on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11 a.m. Interment Sacred
Heart Cemetery, Mildmay.
Donations were made to the Muscular Dystrophy Association or
a charity of your choice.
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GRIEVE o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2007-07-01 published
Tiny, feisty woman big on independence
By Glynnis
MAPP,
Sun
Media,
Sun.,
July 1, 2007
When
Amy
Elizabeth
GRIEVE was born, doctors said she wouldn't
make it to her first birthday because of a "funny heart."
GRIEVE proved them all wrong.
Born in 1906 in Tyendinaga Township near Belleville, she lived
through the sinking of the Titanic, two World Wars, the Great
Depression and Canada's Centennial.
GRIEVE died on June 20 at the Dearness Home. She was 101.
Her family believes
GRIEVE's secret to her agility -- she walked
nearly five kilometres a day in her 80s -- and long life was
in her diet.
GRIEVE didn't smoke or eat junk food and rarely drank alcohol.
Fruits and vegetables were the mainstays of her diet. On special
occasions, she would allow herself a small glass of rye and ginger
ale.
"That was her one treat for herself. She always made sure to
eat three good meals every day and was very active mentally and
physically," said her daughter Sharon
ZEISNER.
Standing four-foot-11,
GRIEVE may have been small in stature,
but she was larger than life, relatives say.
GRIEVE was known for her gourmet cooking, a hobby she thoroughly
enjoyed. Up until she was in her 80s, she cooked a roast for
herself every Sunday and froze the leftovers.
"She was bright, vivacious and fiercely independent. She was
just a wonderful woman and a joy to be around," said her daughter
Shirleyan ENGLISH.
GRIEVE trained in North Bay to become a teacher and went on to
work at schools in northern Ontario.
One of the schools was in Tomiko, a railway stop on the line
between North Bay and Cobalt.
Elliott GRIEVE, who worked as a telegrapher at the train station,
immediately became enamoured with the "feisty" and self-sufficient
new teacher in town.
"My dad was only five-(foot)-three so they were perfect for each
other. He spotted her right away,"
ZEISNER said. "When my mom
stepped off of the train, (one of his co-workers) said to my
dad, 'That's the woman for you.' "
The couple married in 1934.
ENGLISH remembers living in a house filled with love and her
parents "making suggestions instead of arguing."
In 1956, GRIEVE's husband died and she was left to figure out
how to support her three young daughters and make ends meet on
her teacher's salary.
To make additional income,
GRIEVE invested in real estate, buying
and selling small properties for profit.
"In that day, not a lot of women were investing in real estate,"
ENGLISH said. "She was very clever. She would sell the houses
and sometimes rent them out. She could calculate monthly mortgage
payments in her head."
Even as she aged, family said
GRIEVE was "sharp as a tack," remembering
family birthdays, phone numbers of her children, eight grandchildren
and eight great-grandchildren.
In 1991, GRIEVE moved from her home in Haliburton County to London
to be closer to her three daughters.
ENGLISH said the opinionated family scion would frequently give
seasoned advice on family academic pursuits, careers and relationships.
"She was very astute and a really strong woman and led by example,"
ENGLISH said.
"She showed us we could be ourselves and be independent women,
in or out of a marriage. We could do whatever we wanted to do
in life."
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GRIEVE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-01-03 published
KOCH,
Elizabeth
Patricia
Diane (née
GREER/GRIER)
(April 17th 1939, to December 26th, 2006)
Daughter of the late Jean Wagner
GREER/GRIER, R.N. and Clifton W.
GREER/GRIER,
M.A., and her husband Gerhardt. Passed away at Belleville General
Hospital. She is survived by eight children Clifton, Lorne, Linda,
Francie, Rima, Samuel, Jack and Charles, and nine grandchildren
her sister Jolyn
GRIEVE,
Belleville, and Norah
HISCOCK. Eaganville,
both artists. Pat's business Koch Signs encompassed all surrounding
counties. Her accomplished paintings in varied mediums are of
primary aclaim. Teachers were her father, noted Toronto art instructor,
the staff at Central Technical Art School and the Ontario College
of Art and Design, Carl
SCHAFER and Donald
FRASER at Mary Schneider
Art School, Actinote, Ontario. Pat lived in a log cabin on her
own private lake (Rainbow Lake) near Tweed for over 30 years,
where she painted. Funeral Service January 5th, a 2 p.m., at
McConnell Funeral Home, 137 Colborne St. Tweed, followed by a
reception, at nearby Trudeau Park. Cremation. Interment Mount
Pleasant Cemetery Toronto. Donations to a charity of your choice
would be appreciated by the family.
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GRIEVE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-07-26 published
KLEIN,
Rodney
George
Tschernoff
17th Duke of York's Royal Canadian Hussars
Sears Canada Manager 1965-1987
It is with much sadness that we announce that Rod passed away
on July 24, 2007, in his 85th year, after a brief illness. Loving
husband and cherished companion of Helen
KLEIN (née
BLAIR.)
Dear
brother of Nadia Mahoney
ASHKANASE and brother-in- law of Ena
CLYNE.
Very proud father of four children who he admired and
loved with all his heart: Leslie (Rick
COATES,)
Steve
(Cathy
RYAN,)
Randy
(Deborah
GRIEVE) and Robin. Generous and caring
Grampa to six grandchildren: Kelly, Richard, Nikki, Alex, Caitlin
and Jennifer. Rod joined the Hussars in 1939 and served Canada
with distinction until 1945. A Belleville resident since 1978,
he was the much respected Operating Superintendent of Sears in
Quinte Mall until retirement. Member of the Belleville Bridge
Club, Harbour Club, Oak Hills Golf Club and Belleville Sagonaska
Club.
Visitation at Burke Funeral Home, 150 Church Street, Belleville,
on Monday, July 30th from 2: 00 to 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
A Memorial Service celebrating Rod's life will be held at 11: 00 a.m.
on Tuesday, July 31st at Bridge Street United Church, 60 Bridge
Street,
Belleville.
Special thanks to Doctor
LISOWSKI and the staff
on Quinte 5 for their wonderful care. Donations in Rod's memory
can be made to the Belleville General Hospital Foundation --
Palliative Care, or to The Juno Beach Centre (www.junobeach.org)
Online condolences at
www.burkefuneral.ca
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GRIEVE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-01 published
PICKFORD,
Margaret
Ogilvie (née
GRIEVE)
(Formerly of Kinmount, Ontario)
Peacefully passed away on August 29, 2007 at the Villages of
Sandalwood Park, Brampton in her 91st year. Wife of the late
Fred (2004). Dear mother of Angus and his wife Mary. Grandmother
of Susan and Robert
PICKFORD.
Great-grandmother of Samantha
PICKFORD.
At Margaret's request, no funeral services will be held. Margaret's
remains will be interred in the family plot in Kinmount at a
later date. Arrangements in the care of Scott Funeral Home "Brampton
Chapel" (905-451-1100). You are invited to sign Margaret's Book
of Condolences at www.scott- brampton.ca
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.grey_county.owen_sound.the_sun_times 2007-10-17 published
GRIMOLDBY,
Bernadine (née
BECHARD)
On Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at Hannah Walker Place. Bernadine
GRIMOLDBY (née
BECHARD) of Owen Sound in her 90th year. Predeceased
by her husband James. Loving mother to Sherline and her husband
Paul ADAS of Utica, Michigan, Jim and his wife
Joyce of Owen
Sound, and Garry and Cheryl of Ingersol. Sadly missed by grandchildren
Debbie, Chuck, Linda, Michelle, Jamie, Susan, Linda Ann, Kevin,
Trevor, and by several great-grandchildren. Survived by her brother
Joseph BECHARD, sister-in-law Evelyn
CHRISTENSON, and special
friend Marion
GRIFFIN.
Predeceased by her sister Loretta
BROWN.
Friends are invited to the Tannahill Funeral Home for visiting
on Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. A Ladies Legion Auxiliary Service
will take place at 6: 45 p.m. A funeral service will take place
in the chapel, Friday, October 19th at 11 o'clock. Interment
Saint Mary's Cemetery. Donations to the Alzheimer Society would
be appreciated.
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.simcoe_county.nottawasaga.collingwood.the_connection 2007-01-12 published
COUTTIE,
Roy▼
David▼
(January▼ 15, 1932-January 10, 2007)
After a brave battle with cancer, surrounded by his family at
Credit Valley Hospital. Roy was the loving husband of Mary (pre-deceased).
He was the proud father of Terry (Elizabeth), David (Lynn), Sherry
COUTTIE-
GRIFFIN (Aidan
GRIFFIN) and Cathy (Bernie
KLASEN). He
is predeceased by his daughter Debbie
BASE.
Roy▼ was the cherished
grandpa of Jeffery, David, Matthew, Mackenzie, Liam, Michaela,
Aidan and Ella. Roy will be remembered by his sisters Jean, Bunny,
Muriel, Brenda, and Phyllis. He is predeceased by his sister
Doris. It is with love that Roy's family celebrates the end of
his very active life. Roy enjoyed a long and distinguished career
with Goodyear in Toronto, Collingwood, Oshawa, Winnipeg and Kirkland
Lake. He was a wonderful doting grandpa to his eight grandchildren.
Roy was an avid golfer who for many years divided his time between
courses in Collingwood and Florida. Roy enthusiastically organized
the senior tournaments at Duntroon Highlands. He enjoyed travelling
with Mary throughout the world. He loved his hobby farm outside
of Collingwood where he entertained Friends and family as well
as fishing in the Pretty River. The family would like to thank
Dr. Mark QUIGG, the staff at Credit Valley Hospital and Amica
for their care and support. Friends and family will be received
at Fawcett Funeral Home in Collingwood on Saturday January 13
at 1: 00 p.m.
Page 20
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-01-12 published
COUTTIE,
David▲
Roy▲
(January▲ 15, 1932-January 10, 2007)
After a brave battle with cancer, surrounded by his family at
Credit Valley Hospital. Roy was the loving husband of Mary (pre-deceased).
He was the proud father of Terry (Elizabeth), David (Lynn), Sherry
COUTTIE-
GRIFFIN (Aidan
GRIFFIN) and Cathy (Bernie
KLASEN). He
is predeceased by his daughter Debbie
BASE.
Roy▲ was the cherished
grandpa of Jeffery, David, Matthew, Mackenzie, Liam, Michaela,
Aidan and Ella. Roy will be remembered by his sisters Jean, Bunny,
Muriel, Brenda, and Phyllis. He is predeceased by his sister
Doris. It is with love that Roy's family celebrates the end of
his very active life. Roy enjoyed a long and distinguished career
with Goodyear in Toronto, Collingwood, Oshawa, Winnipeg and Kirkland
Lake. He was a wonderful doting grandpa to his eight grandchildren.
Roy was an avid golfer who for many years divided his time between
courses in Collingwood and Florida. Roy enthusiastically organized
the senior tournaments at Duntroon Highlands. He enjoyed travelling
with Mary throughout the world. He loved his hobby farm outside
of Collingwood where he entertained Friends and family as well
as fishing in the Pretty River. The family would like to thank
Dr. Mark QUIGG, the staff at Credit Valley Hospital and Amica
for their care and support. Friends and family will be received
at Fawcett Funeral Homes, Collingwood Chapel, 82 Pine Street,
on Saturday January 13 at 1: 00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations
may be made payable to the Canadian Cancer Society in Mr.
COUTTIE's
memory. Friends may leave comments for the family by visiting
www.fawcettfuneralhomes.com
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-05-30 published
GRIFFIN,
Norma
Beverly (née
MUNRO,)
On May 26, 2007, at the Trillium Health Centre, Mississauga,
Ontario, just shy of her 75th Birthday, June 5, 1932. Beloved
wife of Sydney P.
GRIFFIN for 51 years, loving and devoted mother
of Derek R.
GRIFFIN
(Elizabeth) of Toronto and Eleanor G.
GRILO
(Carlos) of Mississauga. Proud and adoring nanny of Connor, Kevin
and Brooke
GRILO. Dear sister of Margaret
ZABKAR
(Ed) of Fort
Myers, Florida and the late Reid
MUNRO
(Marg) and the late Barbara
HESS
(David, deceased.) Norma, (formerly of Montreal and Asbestos,
Quebec), was the most wonderful individual in the world; warm
and a great person to be around. An advisor and confidant to
many. Known for her kindness, wisdom and great sense of humour.
Friends felt better after being in her company. Her grandchildren
will miss her chocolate chip cookies and muffins! Norma has waived
a funeral. Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will
be held on Friday, June 1st, 11: 00 a.m. at Saint_John's Dixie Cemetery,
737 Dundas St. East, Mississauga (Dundas and Cawthra). Reception
to follow in the church hall. Memorial contributions in Norma's
memory may be made to the charity of your choice and would be
greatly appreciated by the family. cgrilo@sympatico.ca
Arrangements entrusted to Tranquility Burial and Cremation Services
Inc. (905) 855-7565.
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-22 published
Socialite's Brazilian Carnival Ball raised millions for Toronto
charities
Using organizational skills and strategy worthy of a Bay Street
Chief Executive Officer, she transformed a church-basement affair
into the social event of the season, writes Sandra
MARTIN
By Sandra MARTIN,
Page▼
S11▼
Italian and Brazilian in ancestry, Anna Maria DE
SOUZA heated
up the staid fundraising climate in Toronto with the Brazilian
Carnival Ball, probably the most significant philanthropic gala
on the Canadian social calendar. A warm-blooded, energetic outsider,
she had the entrepreneurial zeal, organizing skills and shrewd
ambition of a self-made Chief Executive Officer. But, instead
of starting a company or a launching a hedge fund, she camouflaged
those skills under the patina of a society hostess. Using old-fashioned
influence, rather than naked power, she forged alliances with
charitable foundations in campaigns that raised their profiles,
her status, and close to $45-million for Toronto hospitals, universities
and arts and culture organizations over the past 40 years.
For▼ all her flamboyance, Ms. DE
SOUZA was intensely private.
Nobody knew her real age - not even her husband Ivan, as she
loved to boast. "I've known her for 35 years and it never occurred
to me to wonder," said her friend Catherine
NUGENT. "
She▼ was
one of those people who was ageless."
Along▼ with Ms. DE
SOUZA's success came complaints about her management
style. She seemed unapologetic to criticisms that she was territorial
and a micro-manager who autocratically chose the event's annual
beneficiary. "This is big business, and the organization requires
that we have a good board to sell the ball, a recipient who will
pay for our computers, our secretarial staff," she told Maclean's
last year. "This work requires a huge infrastructure." And even
knowing how much work was involved, if Ms. DE
SOUZA asked if
you wanted to be the beneficiary of the Brazilian Carnival Ball,
"there was absolutely no reason to say no," said Paul
ALOFS,
president of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation "because
it is such a massive fundraising and awareness-generating opportunity
for a not-for-profit."
Although the ball was her biggest activity, it wasn't her only
one. She also volunteered on the women's committee of the Canadian
Opera Company and was the curator of the Henry Birks Antique
Collection of Silver in the late 1970s. A passionate gardener
and a keen tennis player, she loved to entertain and to cook
for her guests. "She was the most generous, vivacious person
I know," said Ms.
NUGENT. "
She▼ loved to introduce people to each
other and to grow her circle of Friends, but she was also shy."
Anna Maria DE
SOUZA, the daughter of Amadeu
GUIDI and his wife
Honorica▼ (née
MARCOLLINI,) was born in Sao Sebastiao de Parasio
in the mountainous state of Minas Geras in the interior of Brazil.
She grew up in a family of four brothers and one sister. Her
grandfather on her mother's side had immigrated from Genoa, Italy,
as a teenager and found a job as a construction worker building
homes for plantation workers, according to Rosemary Sexton in
The Glitter Girls, Charity and Vanity: Chronicles of an Age of
Excess.
When money was scarce, her grandfather was paid in land. Eventually
he accumulated enough acreage to start his own plantation and
enough wealth to take his family back to Genoa on a trip. There,
he bought a villa. For the rest of his life he spent half the
year in Italy and the other in Brazil. When his daughter, Honorica,
married, Mr.
MARCOLLINI handed over control of his Brazilian
plantation to her new husband, Amadeu. That's where his granddaughter,
Anna Maria, grew up, in what she later compared to paradise.
It was a time in which life "was gracious and slow and everything
was looked after." She was educated at the Collegio Paula Frassinette
in Brazil where she earned a teaching degree, and then attended
the Escola Técnica de Comercio C.A.
At 18, she married William John
GRIFFITHS, an English mining
engineer for Wimpey Construction, a British firm that had a contract
to build a dam in Brazil. Anna Maria went into labour with their
first child on Good Friday, a holiday in Brazil. Her doctor was
away, the birth was arduous and afterward Anna Maria was unable
to bear more children. The baby, a daughter, lived for only 23 days.
To compound the tragedy, her husband died in a work-related accident
10 months later.
Widowed, and still in her teens, Anna Maria went to live with
her grandmother in Italy where she attended finishing school.
Afterward, sailing back to Brazil on a cruise ship, she met a
Brazilian plantation owner who urged her to get involved in the
coffee exporting business. As chance would have it, at a party
in Rio de Janeiro on New Year's Eve in 1964, Anna Maria met a
man named John
MARSTON, who said he imported bulk foods into
Canada. If she had products to sell, he was interested in seeing
them.
With an insouciant entrepreneurship, she gathered some samples
from the family coffee plantation and set out for Canada, arriving
in Toronto in gloomiest February, 1965. She looked up Mr.
MARSTON
and married him three months later in a Protestant ceremony,
which her mother, a Catholic, boycotted. "I fell in love with
Toronto and the only thing I could do to stay was to get married,"
she once confided. By 1974, the
MARSTONs had divorced, Anna Maria
complaining later that her husband was a workaholic who had little
interest in married life.
Anna Maria had long since found ways to make her own life more
interesting. Homesickness propelled her "to kill the longing"
by organizing her first Brazilian Ball in 1966, the winter after
she arrived in Canada, in a church basement at Dundas and Grace
Streets, a largely Portuguese area of Toronto. Tickets cost $5,
the food for the 50 guests was prepared by Anna Maria and her
Friends, and the aim was merely to cover costs and bring a little
Mardi Gras colour to the dreary Toronto winter. The ball quickly
became a tradition.
By the early 1970s, the ball, which had quickly moved above ground
to the Sutton Place Hotel and then the Sheraton Centre, was making
a small profit, with the proceeds going to a Brazilian orphanage.
That tradition has continued with five per cent of the annual
profits benefiting leper colonies, old age homes and other causes
in or around her hometown. When Toronto charities began asking
if they could reap the ball's annual largesse, Anna Maria astutely
decided to bestow the fundraising benefits on a different cause
every time, thereby hooking into a fresh network and set of volunteers
annually.
Krystyne GRIFFIN attended her first Brazilian Ball in 1977, the
year she left Paris, married businessman and Griffin Poetry Prize
founder and benefactor Scott
GRIFFIN, and moved to Toronto. "Everybody
told me this was the party to go to because it showed that Toronto
could be fun." They were correct. "A guy in drag dressed like
Queen Alexandra walked up and smacked Scott right on the lips.
That▼ was my introduction to Anna Maria's parties," said Ms.
GRIFFIN.
"I liked her without knowing her well."
The ball celebrated its 14th anniversary in 1980 at the Four
Seasons Hotel on Avenue Road in Toronto and netted $50,000. That's
where it stayed until 1988, when it moved to the yawning depths
of the Metro Toronto Convention Hotel, the only venue that could
accommodate crowds upward of 1,000.
Disaffected by her globe-trotting, work-obsessed husband, Anna
Maria met the late Montagu Black at the Brazilian Carnival Ball
in the early 1970s, and he thought she should meet his younger
brother, Conrad, who was then plying his way as an aspiring tycoon
and researching his biography of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis.
Eventually, lawyer Igor Kaplan introduced them and they dated
for about two years after her 1974 divorce. "She was a delightful,
refreshing, and enterprising person, and was a very popular and
respected person in a community where she started as a stranger
and, at first, hardly spoke the language," Conrad Black wrote
in an e-mail message yesterday. "I saw her a lot at the time
my parents died, 10 days apart, in 1976, and she could not have
been more supportive."
Anna▼
Maria's▼ lasting love, however, was businessman Ivan DE
SOUZA.
Introduced▼ by Marvelle
KOFFLER, wife of Murray
KOFFLER of Shoppers
Drug Mart, they had much in common, both being Portuguese-speaking
and Catholic. They were married on December 22, 1982, and were
devoted to each other.
More than the venue of the ball changed over the years. As it
became more lavish and raised more money (much of it matched
by government programs with costs underwritten by corporate sponsors),
so, too, did the entertainment. Instead of handmade decorations
on a carnival theme, Ms. DE
SOUZA began importing carnival dancers
from Brazil. That meant switching the date from Mardi Gras (the
carnival on the eve of Lent, the 40-day period of penance preceding
Easter in the Catholic calendar) to April or May so that the
dancers could travel to Toronto in their off-season.
At the 40th anniversary of the ball in 2006, the $2-million in
net proceeds went to York University's Accolade Project and the
1,600 guests were entertained by a 30-minute samba parade from
the Rio Carnival - including 50 dancers in feathered, beaded
and bejewelled costumes processing on foot or on wooden horses
- to the beat of the batucada rhythm supplied by the Cocktail
Brazil Band.
Last▼
November,▼
Ms.▼ DE
SOUZA was diagnosed with rampaging cancer
and underwent rigorous treatment that included chemotherapy at
Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. She looked frail, but
valiant, at the 2007 ball, which was held April 21 and raised
$2.6-million net for the Arthritis and Autoimmunity Research
Centre in Toronto. "She and the ball were a brand, and for a
very small organization like us, she had a tremendous impact.
She did a great job," said Gerri Grant, executive director of
the AARC.
About a month ago, Ms. DE
SOUZA went back into hospital for more
treatment, but was well enough to decide that oncology nursing,
through the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, should be
the focus and the beneficiary of the 2008 Brazilian ball - the
first one that will occur without her dominant presence.
Anna Maria DE
SOUZA was born in Brazil, probably in 1941. She
died in Toronto on September 18, 2007. She was in her mid-60s.
She▼ is survived by her third husband, Ivan DE
SOUZA, her step-son
John, and her extended family.
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-10-01 published
PORTER,
Phyllis
Patricia (née
DICKSON/DIXON)
86, of Bermuda Village passed away Friday, September 28, 2007
at Forsyth Memorial Hospital. She is survived by her husband
of 66 years, Doctor Arthur
PORTER of Bermuda Village; son, Doctor John
and daughter-in-law Kathy
PORTER of Bermuda Run; grand_sons, Ian
of Georgetown, D.C. and Gregory of Edinburgh, Scotland; granddaughter,
Jennifer GRIFFIN of Huntsville, Ontario and great-granddaughter
Haley GRIFFIN.
Mrs.
PORTER is also survived by her sisters-in-law,
Elsa DICKSON/DIXON and Georgina
PORTER with whom she spent the war years
in England. A survivor of the London Blitz 0f 1940, Mrs.
PORTER
lived in London, Toronto and Belfountain, Ontario, Naples, Florida
and North Carolina. She was active in the arts, painting and
literary circles and gardening. Widely traveled with her husband,
Mrs. PORTER was a renowned social and academic hostess. The memorial
service will be conducted at 4 p.m. Monday, October 1, at Bermuda
Village. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be
made to either the National Canadian Multiple Sclerosis Society
or the National British Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-11-23 published
GRIFFIN,
Roger
Allan
Born in Leamington, Ontario May 30, 1944, died of cancer in Toronto
on November 21, 2007. Predeceased by parents D. Ivan and Marion
(DEWHIRST) and brother Glen; survived by brother Stanley, sister-in-law
Pat, nieces Carly and Katie and several cousins. After receiving
his B.A., University of Windsor (1966) Roger began his working
career with Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and then completed
teaching certification and taught and counseled at Bloor Collegiate
Institute, Toronto (1969-75), American Community Schools of Athens,
Greece (1975-76), and Parkdale Collegiate Institute, Toronto
(1976-77). After completing his M. Ed., University of Toronto
(1978), he was Headmaster, Canadian Junior College, Carriacou,
Grenada (1979). Roger moved to business consulting with Synchron
Associates Inc. (1979-81), Foundation for International Training
(1981-86), ARA Consulting (1986-1994) and finally Senior
Manager, Bearing Point/KPMG Consulting (1994 - retiring in
2004). Roger managed programs in China, Malaysia, Thailand and
the Caribbean, living in Barbados from 1986 to 1990 which became
a special place for him. World traveler, gourmet cook, enthusiastic
gardener, lover of music and the arts, and a wonderful friend
to many, Roger was a true connoisseur of life. He was a founding
member, Past-President and director of Sultan St. Housing Cooperative
Inc. that had been his home for more than 25 years. Roger will
be missed by Friends across Canada, the U.S., Europe and the
Caribbean. As Roger wished there will be no funeral service.
Friends will be advised of a celebration of Roger's life. If
you so desire, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society, Casey
House Foundation (special thanks to the staff at Casey House
Hospice) or a charity of your choice would be appreciated. Funeral
arrangements entrusted to the Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home and Chapel,
467 Sherbourne Street, (416) 924-1408
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GRIFFIN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-12-12 published
NEWTON,
Lynne
On Monday, December 10, 2007 at Baycrest Hospital. Lynne
NEWTON,
beloved daughter of the late Maureen
NEWTON-
SHINDER and Dennis
NEWTON.
Loving mother and mother-in-law of Jason and Kristina
GRIFFIN, and Meaghan
GRIFFIN. Dear sister and sister-in-law of
Wendy and Jack
KLEIN,
Gary
NEWTON and Jean
WANG. Devoted grandmother
of Brenna, and Patrick. At Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel, 2401 Steeles
Avenue W., (three lights west of Dufferin) for service on Wednesday,
December 12th at 1: 00 p.m. Interment Beth Tikvah Synagogue section
of Pardes Shalom Cemetery. Shiva 80 Hillhurst Blvd., daily from
2: 00 p.m. Memorial donations may be made to The Parkinson Society
of Canada 416-227-9700.
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GRIFFIN - All Categories in OGSPI
GRIFFITH o@ca.on.simcoe_county.nottawasaga.stayner.stayner_sun 2007-08-01 published
CARMICHAEL,
Donald
Lloyd
Passed away peacefully on Saturday July 21, 2007 at Creedan Valley
Nursing Home in Creemore in his 91st year. Donald, beloved husband
of 64 years of Jean
CARMICHAEL (née
HAMMILL.)
Loving father of
Lynda and her husband Gordon
ZEGGIL. Cherished grandfather of
Heather (Bill
GRIFFITH,)
Audrey
Lynn,
Wanda and great-grandfather
of Sarah and Danielle. Dear brother of Lorne (Shirley)
CARMICHAEL
of Delta, B.C.. Predeceased by his son Lorne and parents Daniel
and Margaret
CARMICHAEL.
Visitation took place on Tuesday July 24,
2007 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at Fawcett Funeral Homes, Creemore Chapel,
182 Mill Street. A funeral service was held in the chapel on
Wednesday July 25, 2007 at 2: 00 p.m. Interment, Singhampton Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made payable to the Diabetes
Association, the General and Marine Hospital of Collingwood or
the charity of the donor's choice in Mr.
CARMICHAEL's memory.
Friends may visit the on-line memorial at www.fawcettfuneralhomes.com
Page 12
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GRIFFITH o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-07-28 published
CATTO,
Barbara
Jean (née
THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON)
With great sadness, we announce the death of our Mom, Jean
CATTO,
who passed away quietly at home, surrounded by her children,
on Tuesday, July 24, 2007.
Born on May 14, 1931, Mom grew up in Port Credit, Ontario. Following
graduation from the University of Toronto in 1952, Mom married
our Dad, James Arthur
CATTO on June 26, 1954.
Although Port Credit was home, Mom's heart was in Muskoka where
she and Dad spent many magical seasons. After our Dad died in
1984, Mom moved north to Muskoka in 1986. For 15 years the cottage,
the lake, the mergansers, the white pines and the beautiful rocks
of Muskoka provided a sanctuary and served as a welcoming refuge
for her far-flung kids and many other family members and Friends.
In 2001, Mom moved west to Victoria, British Columbia to be closer
to kids and grandkids, and her new view of the Olympic Mountains
across the waters of the Juan de Fuca provided much comfort.
We feel very fortunate that following a short illness, Mom was
able to spend her final days at home, surrounded by all of her
children, close family and Friends.
Mom will be sadly missed by her kids: Joanne, of North Yorkshire,
England; Babs, of Victoria, British Columbia; and Steve, of Fort
Simpson, Northwest Territories. Also grieving her passing are
sons-in-law, Colin
GRIFFITH and David
VERNON, her grandchildren
Ben,
Andrew,
Jack and Julia, her sister Peggy
ELLIOT/ELLIOTT of North
Carolina, and so many other dear family and Friends.
Please help us celebrate Mom's life during a memorial service
to be held, on Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 2 p.m. at Skinner and
Middlebrook, 128 Lakeshore Road, Port Credit, Ontario, with a
reception to follow.
At Mom's request, we thank you for donations to: Victoria Hospice,
1952 Bay Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8R 1J8.
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GRIFFITH o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-25 published
GRIFFITH,
John
William
Dale "
Bill"
In his 84th year, at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg.
Loving husband of the late Anne (née
FOX,) with whom he experienced
great happiness throughout his life. Caring father of Suzanne,
Bruce and Sarah Jane, grandfather of six. Bill was an athlete,
Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, prospector, geologist and professional
engineer and an avid volunteer in various community services
in Port Hope, Toronto and Ottawa. A private family Celebration
of Life will be held at a later date.
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GRIFFITH - All Categories in OGSPI
GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-06-13 published
GRIFFITHS,
S.
Reginald
With deepest sadness we announce that S. Reginald
GRIFFITHS
(Reg)
died in Burlington on Sunday, June 10th, 2007. After a rich and
happy life, he will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 60 years,
Joyce, his children Carolyn and Andrew (Helen), his granddaughters
Sonia (Fabrice), Dominique, Cory and Dayna, his great-grand_son,
Alexandre, and his sister Muriel. Reg served as a Captain in
the Royal Artillery during World War 2, then enjoyed a successful
career in the insurance industry, beginning with the Prudential
in England and later with Zurich as Deputy Manager for Canada.
He joined MGFA as Managing Director and later became a Director
and Consultant for Mutuelles du Mans of France. A member of the
Royal Canadian Military Institute, The Ontario Club and the Empire
Club, Reg was also an enthusiastic and talented sportsman participating
actively over the years in numerous soccer, cricket, tennis,
squash, golf and sailing associations, including most recently
the Port Credit Yacht Club and Wyldewood Golf Club. Friends are
invited to attend a graveside ceremony at Woodland Cemetery,
Spring Gardens Road, Hamilton, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 16,
2007. A Commemorative Gathering will follow at Smith's Funeral
Home, 1167 Guelph Line (one stoplight north of Queen Elizabeth
Way) Burlington (905-632-3333), from 12: 00 p.m. until time of
Memorial Service at 1 p.m. and reception in Reg's memory. If
desired, memorial contributions to the Parkinson Society would
be sincerely appreciated by the family. www.smithsfh.com
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-07-17 published
GRIFFITHS,
Gordon
A., P.Eng. (Mining)
With sadness, the family announces that Gordon died on July 15,
2007. Beloved husband of Mary-Louise
(THOMPSON/THOMSON/TOMPSON/TOMSON,) father of Susan
(Ron) REINHOLT, Kathy (Steve)
ROHACEK, David (Monique)
GRIFFITHS,
Mark (Marianne)
GRIFFITHS and grandchildren Colin, Hannah, Allison
and Erin. Celebration of life and memorial to be held in the
fall. Gordon enjoyed a long and successful career in the mining
and oil well services industry commencing with geological exploration
and later founding Dagex Inc. Expressions of sympathy to Sunnybrook
Transfusion Medicine Service, North York Breast Cancer or please
donate blood. Thank you to Doctor
CALLUM,
Arlene,
Annette,
Sunnybrook
Transfusion and 3C/4C doctors, nurses and staff as well as the
Orillia Soldiers' Hospital Transfusion and Doctor
LAINE-
GOSSIN.
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-08-04 published
STOCKER,
Marion
Elaine (née
BLACHFORD)
It is with great sadness we announce the passing of Marion E.
STOCKER, in her 91st year, of Fredericton, on July 29, 2007 at
the Doctor Everett Chalmers Hospital. Born in Toronto, Ontario,
she was a daughter of the late Arthur and Sarah
(GRIFFITHS)
BLACHFORD
and wife of the late George C.
STOCKER.
Marion was employed with the Devon Park Co-Op where she worked
as a salesclerk for over twenty years until her retirement. She
was a very active volunteer at York Manor Nursing Home.
Survived by her sons Paul of Edmonton, Rick (Marg) of Fredericton,
Jim (Marsha) of Harrison, New York, Grant of Halifax; sister
Eleanor FASKIN
(William) of Brockville; 4 grandchildren Brent
STOCKER (Morgane), Brian
STOCKER (Nina), Sarah
STOCKER and Drew
STOCKER; great-grand_son Eric
STOCKER; several nieces and nephews.
Predeceased by her parents, husband, brother Arthur (Durham),
sister Elizabeth (Betty).
An informal gathering was held on Wednesday, August 1, 2007 to
receive family and Friends at Bishop's Funeral Home, 540 Woodstock
Rd., Fredericton, New Brunswick, from 4-8 p.m. A private family
memorial will take place at a later date. Interment will be at
Parklawn Cemetery. For those who wish, memorials may be made
to the York Manor Nursing Home, Canadian National Institute for
the Blind or charity of the donor's choice.
www.bishopsfuneralhome.com
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-01 published
CARTER,
Griffin
James
Andrew and Leigh (née
GRIFFITHS) are thrilled to announce the
birth of their son, Griffin James
CARTER at 1: 07 a.m. on August
22, 2007 weighing 8 pounds 6 oz. The proud grandparents are Sally
CARTER,
Paul and Dora
CARTER, and Jim and Helen
GRIFFITHS. Excited
uncle and aunts are Gerry, Kim, Kate and Chris. Thanks to the
staff at Mount Sinai Hospital.
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-22 published
CRAIG,
Keith
Newman
It is with deep sadness that our family announces the peaceful
passing of Keith
CRAIG on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 in Elliot
Lake of a sudden heart attack and stroke. Beloved husband of
Joan CRAIG
(COLEMAN,) father to Bill of Toronto, Carol (Randall)
FLETCHER of Prince Edward Island, Ted of Edmonton, Sue (Neil)
McCOOEYE of Montreal. He will also be greatly missed by his grandchildren
John (Jenny) and Dan
CRAIG, Adam (Jessica), Ryan and Rachel
FLETCHER,
Doug and Alex
McCOOEYE and Keith's siblings Lois
PEARCE
(Chatham,)
Joyce GRIFFITHS
(Vancouver) and
Ken
(Orillia.) A private family
service was held. Keith lived his life to full measure. Born
in North Gower, Ontario; navigator in the Royal Canadian Air
Force European Bomber Command ('43-45); Humberside Collegiate
and U. of Toronto Engineering graduate; Margison and Babcock; R.M.
Way and Co; partner in Ball, Craig and Short; M.Ed. at Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education in 1972; teacher/principal at Oakville
Trafalgar, Georgetown District and M.M. Robinson High Schools.
From the mid 70's until his retirement in 1990, Dad was the Superintendent
of Instruction for the North Shore Board of Education in Elliot
Lake. Keith was a winemaker extraordinaire, raconteur, wind sailor
who navigated the Great Lakes from his beloved North Shore Yacht
Club where he was commodore and sailed across the Atlantic in
1988, hand builder of sailboats, traveller of the globe with
his beloved Joan, creator of grand oil paintings to adorn his
and others' walls, and an enthusiastic cross country skier. Keith
shared all with family and Friends generously. All are welcome
to a memorial service at the Unitarian Congregation of South
Peel at 2 p.m., Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 84 South Service
Road, Mississauga (south of Queen Elizabeth Way and east of Hurontario
Street (Hwy. 10). This is the Congregation that Keith helped
found and designed the building. He requested that the occasion
be enjoyable and for no one to wear black. Refreshments will
be served. Come celebrate with us a great life beautifully lived.
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-09-22 published
Socialite's Brazilian Carnival Ball raised millions for Toronto
charities
Using organizational skills and strategy worthy of a Bay Street
Chief Executive Officer, she transformed a church-basement affair
into the social event of the season, writes Sandra
MARTIN
By Sandra MARTIN,
Page▲
S11▲
Italian and Brazilian in ancestry, Anna Maria DE
SOUZA heated
up the staid fundraising climate in Toronto with the Brazilian
Carnival Ball, probably the most significant philanthropic gala
on the Canadian social calendar. A warm-blooded, energetic outsider,
she had the entrepreneurial zeal, organizing skills and shrewd
ambition of a self-made Chief Executive Officer. But, instead
of starting a company or a launching a hedge fund, she camouflaged
those skills under the patina of a society hostess. Using old-fashioned
influence, rather than naked power, she forged alliances with
charitable foundations in campaigns that raised their profiles,
her status, and close to $45-million for Toronto hospitals, universities
and arts and culture organizations over the past 40 years.
For▲ all her flamboyance, Ms. DE
SOUZA was intensely private.
Nobody knew her real age - not even her husband Ivan, as she
loved to boast. "I've known her for 35 years and it never occurred
to me to wonder," said her friend Catherine
NUGENT. "
She▲ was
one of those people who was ageless."
Along▲ with Ms. DE
SOUZA's success came complaints about her management
style. She seemed unapologetic to criticisms that she was territorial
and a micro-manager who autocratically chose the event's annual
beneficiary. "This is big business, and the organization requires
that we have a good board to sell the ball, a recipient who will
pay for our computers, our secretarial staff," she told Maclean's
last year. "This work requires a huge infrastructure." And even
knowing how much work was involved, if Ms. DE
SOUZA asked if
you wanted to be the beneficiary of the Brazilian Carnival Ball,
"there was absolutely no reason to say no," said Paul
ALOFS,
president of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation "because
it is such a massive fundraising and awareness-generating opportunity
for a not-for-profit."
Although the ball was her biggest activity, it wasn't her only
one. She also volunteered on the women's committee of the Canadian
Opera Company and was the curator of the Henry Birks Antique
Collection of Silver in the late 1970s. A passionate gardener
and a keen tennis player, she loved to entertain and to cook
for her guests. "She was the most generous, vivacious person
I know," said Ms.
NUGENT. "
She▲ loved to introduce people to each
other and to grow her circle of Friends, but she was also shy."
Anna Maria DE
SOUZA, the daughter of Amadeu
GUIDI and his wife
Honorica▲ (née
MARCOLLINI,) was born in Sao Sebastiao de Parasio
in the mountainous state of Minas Geras in the interior of Brazil.
She grew up in a family of four brothers and one sister. Her
grandfather on her mother's side had immigrated from Genoa, Italy,
as a teenager and found a job as a construction worker building
homes for plantation workers, according to Rosemary Sexton in
The Glitter Girls, Charity and Vanity: Chronicles of an Age of
Excess.
When money was scarce, her grandfather was paid in land. Eventually
he accumulated enough acreage to start his own plantation and
enough wealth to take his family back to Genoa on a trip. There,
he bought a villa. For the rest of his life he spent half the
year in Italy and the other in Brazil. When his daughter, Honorica,
married, Mr.
MARCOLLINI handed over control of his Brazilian
plantation to her new husband, Amadeu. That's where his granddaughter,
Anna Maria, grew up, in what she later compared to paradise.
It was a time in which life "was gracious and slow and everything
was looked after." She was educated at the Collegio Paula Frassinette
in Brazil where she earned a teaching degree, and then attended
the Escola Técnica de Comercio C.A.
At 18, she married William John
GRIFFITHS, an English mining
engineer for Wimpey Construction, a British firm that had a contract
to build a dam in Brazil. Anna Maria went into labour with their
first child on Good Friday, a holiday in Brazil. Her doctor was
away, the birth was arduous and afterward Anna Maria was unable
to bear more children. The baby, a daughter, lived for only 23 days.
To compound the tragedy, her husband died in a work-related accident
10 months later.
Widowed, and still in her teens, Anna Maria went to live with
her grandmother in Italy where she attended finishing school.
Afterward, sailing back to Brazil on a cruise ship, she met a
Brazilian plantation owner who urged her to get involved in the
coffee exporting business. As chance would have it, at a party
in Rio de Janeiro on New Year's Eve in 1964, Anna Maria met a
man named John
MARSTON, who said he imported bulk foods into
Canada. If she had products to sell, he was interested in seeing
them.
With an insouciant entrepreneurship, she gathered some samples
from the family coffee plantation and set out for Canada, arriving
in Toronto in gloomiest February, 1965. She looked up Mr.
MARSTON
and married him three months later in a Protestant ceremony,
which her mother, a Catholic, boycotted. "I fell in love with
Toronto and the only thing I could do to stay was to get married,"
she once confided. By 1974, the
MARSTONs had divorced, Anna Maria
complaining later that her husband was a workaholic who had little
interest in married life.
Anna Maria had long since found ways to make her own life more
interesting. Homesickness propelled her "to kill the longing"
by organizing her first Brazilian Ball in 1966, the winter after
she arrived in Canada, in a church basement at Dundas and Grace
Streets, a largely Portuguese area of Toronto. Tickets cost $5,
the food for the 50 guests was prepared by Anna Maria and her
Friends, and the aim was merely to cover costs and bring a little
Mardi Gras colour to the dreary Toronto winter. The ball quickly
became a tradition.
By the early 1970s, the ball, which had quickly moved above ground
to the Sutton Place Hotel and then the Sheraton Centre, was making
a small profit, with the proceeds going to a Brazilian orphanage.
That tradition has continued with five per cent of the annual
profits benefiting leper colonies, old age homes and other causes
in or around her hometown. When Toronto charities began asking
if they could reap the ball's annual largesse, Anna Maria astutely
decided to bestow the fundraising benefits on a different cause
every time, thereby hooking into a fresh network and set of volunteers
annually.
Krystyne GRIFFIN attended her first Brazilian Ball in 1977, the
year she left Paris, married businessman and Griffin Poetry Prize
founder and benefactor Scott
GRIFFIN, and moved to Toronto. "Everybody
told me this was the party to go to because it showed that Toronto
could be fun." They were correct. "A guy in drag dressed like
Queen Alexandra walked up and smacked Scott right on the lips.
That▲ was my introduction to Anna Maria's parties," said Ms.
GRIFFIN.
"I liked her without knowing her well."
The ball celebrated its 14th anniversary in 1980 at the Four
Seasons Hotel on Avenue Road in Toronto and netted $50,000. That's
where it stayed until 1988, when it moved to the yawning depths
of the Metro Toronto Convention Hotel, the only venue that could
accommodate crowds upward of 1,000.
Disaffected by her globe-trotting, work-obsessed husband, Anna
Maria met the late Montagu Black at the Brazilian Carnival Ball
in the early 1970s, and he thought she should meet his younger
brother, Conrad, who was then plying his way as an aspiring tycoon
and researching his biography of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis.
Eventually, lawyer Igor Kaplan introduced them and they dated
for about two years after her 1974 divorce. "She was a delightful,
refreshing, and enterprising person, and was a very popular and
respected person in a community where she started as a stranger
and, at first, hardly spoke the language," Conrad Black wrote
in an e-mail message yesterday. "I saw her a lot at the time
my parents died, 10 days apart, in 1976, and she could not have
been more supportive."
Anna▲
Maria's▲ lasting love, however, was businessman Ivan DE
SOUZA.
Introduced▲ by Marvelle
KOFFLER, wife of Murray
KOFFLER of Shoppers
Drug Mart, they had much in common, both being Portuguese-speaking
and Catholic. They were married on December 22, 1982, and were
devoted to each other.
More than the venue of the ball changed over the years. As it
became more lavish and raised more money (much of it matched
by government programs with costs underwritten by corporate sponsors),
so, too, did the entertainment. Instead of handmade decorations
on a carnival theme, Ms. DE
SOUZA began importing carnival dancers
from Brazil. That meant switching the date from Mardi Gras (the
carnival on the eve of Lent, the 40-day period of penance preceding
Easter in the Catholic calendar) to April or May so that the
dancers could travel to Toronto in their off-season.
At the 40th anniversary of the ball in 2006, the $2-million in
net proceeds went to York University's Accolade Project and the
1,600 guests were entertained by a 30-minute samba parade from
the Rio Carnival - including 50 dancers in feathered, beaded
and bejewelled costumes processing on foot or on wooden horses
- to the beat of the batucada rhythm supplied by the Cocktail
Brazil Band.
Last▲
November,▲
Ms.▲ DE
SOUZA was diagnosed with rampaging cancer
and underwent rigorous treatment that included chemotherapy at
Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. She looked frail, but
valiant, at the 2007 ball, which was held April 21 and raised
$2.6-million net for the Arthritis and Autoimmunity Research
Centre in Toronto. "She and the ball were a brand, and for a
very small organization like us, she had a tremendous impact.
She did a great job," said Gerri Grant, executive director of
the AARC.
About a month ago, Ms. DE
SOUZA went back into hospital for more
treatment, but was well enough to decide that oncology nursing,
through the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, should be
the focus and the beneficiary of the 2008 Brazilian ball - the
first one that will occur without her dominant presence.
Anna Maria DE
SOUZA was born in Brazil, probably in 1941. She
died in Toronto on September 18, 2007. She was in her mid-60s.
She▲ is survived by her third husband, Ivan DE
SOUZA, her step-son
John, and her extended family.
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-10-23 published
AITKEN,
Irene
Joyce
Passed away peacefully after a full life on October 19, 2007
at the age of 97. Predeceased by her devoted husband, William,
in 2005. Dear mother of Donald
AITKEN
(Marianne,)
Judy
CAMERON
(Brian) and Nancy
LEONARD
(George.)
Very proud grandmother of
Suzanne ARENDSE (Roy), Carolyn
WATSON (Tom), Michael
CAMERON
(Danette,) Kevin
CAMERON,
Jennifer
GRIFFITHS (Mattthew,)
Stephen
LEONARD
(Sonia) and Matthew
LEONARD (Heather.)
Loving great-grandmother
of 14. The family will receive Friends at Leaside United Church
on October 25 at 10: 30 to 11:30 for visitation. A memorial service
to celebrate her life will be held at 11: 30. A reception at the
church will follow the service. The family would like to thank
the staff on 3W at the Meighan Manor who cared for her with kindness
and dignity for the last few years. We would also like to extend
our thanks to Frances of Home Care with Care and her 3 special
people, Cherma, Merlita and Marilyn who gave ongoing support
and comfort to our mother. If desired, memorial donations to
the Salvation Army Meighan Manor, 155 Millwood Rd. M4S 1J6 would
be appreciated by the family.
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GRIFFITHS o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-12-01 published
GRIFFITHS,
Myrtle
Helen (née
PHIPPS)
Peacefully on November 28, 2007 in her 90th year. Beloved wife
of the late Robert
GRIFFITHS.
Loving mother of John and his wife
Brenda, and David
GRIFFITHS. Cherished sister of Noble (Bill)
PHIPPS.
Myrtle will be fondly remembered by her family and Friends.
Friends may call at the Trull "North Toronto" Funeral Home, 2704 Yonge
Street, (5 blocks south of Lawrence Ave.) on Monday, December 3rd,
2007 from 10 a.m. until time of service in the chapel at 11: 00 a.m.,
followed by a reception. Burial at Westminster Cemetery. If desired,
donations may be made to the Diabetes Association, P.O. Box 12013
Stn Brm B, Toronto, Ontario, M7Y 2L3.
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