Iris Sophie Mackinlay

Iris was born Iris Sophie Hansen, on June 28, 1941, to A. (Anna) Sophie Hansen and Theodore Christian Hansen. She was raised as the youngest – and much younger - in a family of her parents, two older brothers and a sister, on the family’s mixed grain-and-livestock farm near Theodore, Saskatchewan. In and around Theodore she also had a large extended family of Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, all from her father’s side; her Mom had emigrated to Canada, alone, in 1924, from post-WWI Germany, leaving behind her siblings, her father and a new step-mother and step-siblings.

Iris attended school in Theodore. After graduating high school she attended Teachers College, then embarked upon what was both a career and, to her, a calling - teaching Elementary School. And she would continue to do so for some 35+ years, in a number of small rural communities in Saskatchewan, in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories, and on into BC.

It was somewhere along the way, as a teacher as always, in BC, that she met and eventually married John “Jock” Munro MacKinlay, in 1973. Together they meticulously planned and managed the building of a one-of-a-kind home on Westside Road, across the lake from Kelowna, also in 1973; the home into which they welcomed two daughters - Tara Lynn in 1974 and Carmen Zella in 1975 – and from which Iris would eventually move, in 2011, to Sun Village in West Kelowna, where she resided at the time of her passing.

Tragedy struck Iris when her beloved oldest nephew, Randy, was lost to childhood leukemia in 1972. Also her immediate family when Tara Lynn was killed in a freak drowning accident in a spring-runoff-swelled Bear Creek, just off Westside Road, in April 1994. In Tara’s memory, Iris established and has thereafter annually chosen and awarded to a deserving recipient, the Tara Lynn MacKinlay Memorial Bursary.

Iris, with Jock, was known and active in the Kelowna boating/yachting and K40 club scenes for many years. Later in life she became an avid - though not particularly good – golfer. She was a masterful cook and thoroughly enjoyed hosting and entertaining family and friends for any occasion. She was always the best – and coolest - of all possible aunts to her many “nieces” and “nephews” – actually related and otherwise - and their partners and their children, and all of her daughters’ beloved friends. To know her – “Auntie Iris” to many and simply “Iris” to all else - was to love her and be loved by her. She was a long-time Member of the Grace Lutheran Church congregation, particularly enjoying being part of the Choir for many years.

Iris was predeceased by her: Mother, (Sophie; 1991); Father (Theodore; 1965); Sister (Marlene; 1988); Brother (Paul; 2012); Husband (Jock; 2006); and Daughter (Tara; 1994). She is survived by her: Daughter (Carmen) Granddaughter (Zia); Brother (Chris) and his wife (Lois); multiple Cousins, Nieces and Nephews, and all of their spouses and children, all of whom, along with many others, will remember her fondly and greatly miss her.

Iris’ Funeral Service will be held at Grace Lutheran Church, 1162 Hudson Rd, West Kelowna on Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 1:00 PM. Luncheon to follow in Church Fellowship Hall. Video recording of the Service is planned; it will be available on gracelutherankelowna.com for viewing after ~3:00 PM after the Service.

In lieu of flowers, donations are welcomed to the Tara Lynn MacKinlay Memorial Scholarship, or to Grace Lutheran Church, West Kelowna.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.firstmemorialfuneralkelowna.com for the MACKINLAY family.