Obituary of HUNT – Margaret Jane

May 23, 1918 – March 14, 2010 Margaret Jane Hunt passed away peacefully March 14, 2010 at Mount Royal Care Centre in Calgary. She was 91 years old. Margaret was born on May 23, 1918 at Loreburn, SK. The family moved to Kinistino, SK in 1932. Following her graduation from Saskatoon Normal School Margaret taught at Smiley, Green Lake, Blaine Lake and Prince Albert for more than 25 years until moving to Calgary in 1964 where she taught at Milton Williams, Senator Patrick Burns and A.E. Cross schools. Margaret received an Arts degree, with Great Distinction, from the University of Saskatchewan in 1962. During several summers in the 1950s, she and about 30 others, mainly teachers, traveled throughout North America with the Alberta Recreational Society in a self-contained plywood trailer where they slept, cooked and ate. She wrote a fascinating account of her seven-week 1952 trip, From Pines to Palms or Gang-way to Havana, that included stops in New Orleans, Florida, and a flight to pre-Castro Cuba. Margaret was an exchange teacher in Wales in 1962-63 and enjoyed traveling around the UK and Europe during school holidays. She returned several times in later years. After moving to Calgary, the born and raised Saskatchewan girl became a Calgary Stampeder fan, even sitting once through the pouring rain to watch her beloved Stampeders thrash the Saskatchewan Roughriders; while her brother and sister-in-law left at half time. During the 1970s she was the Stampeders’ team seamstress, sewing the practice and game jerseys, attaching names and numbers and repairing rips. One of the highlights of working with the team was getting a call early on Grey Cup morning 1975 to sew towels onto the Montreal Alouettes’ jerseys to use as hand warmers. She enjoyed watching football games on TV, especially when the Stampeders were playing and was disappointed when they didn’t make it to the Grey Cup game last year. After she retired, Margaret drove many miles for Meals on Wheels, and driving patients to and from their treatments at the Tom Baker Cancer Clinic. The other volunteer drivers and clinic staff really appreciated the baked goodies that she so enjoyed making and regularly supplied. Another of her passions was researching and writing a family history that began with an ancestor coming to North America from Ireland in the 1770s and traced his descendants. In the pre-Internet years a great deal of travel and time reading church records and census rolls was involved. An exchange of information with distant cousins resulted in a detailed account of all branches of the family. She was also an avid reader of both mysteries and literature, and enjoyed watching old movies on television. Margaret was predeceased by five brothers, Harry, Lorne, Reg, Leslie, and Howard, and one sister Betty. She leaves two sister in-laws, Cecile and Linda, five nieces, seven nephews and many great and great-great nieces and nephews to treasure their memories of her. The family deeply thanks Dr. Van Olm, the staff of the Scenic Acres Retirement Residence, and the staff at the Mount Royal Care Centre, especially staff on the fifth floor for their care of Margaret. It was Margaret’s wish that there be no funeral service. Any correspondence can be sent to mikeber@telusplanet.net. In living memory of Margaret Hunt, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Crowfoot Chapel, 82 Crowfoot Circle N.W. Telephone: (403) 241-0044.