Hallie Durkin

Hallie Durkin passed away in North Vancouver on May 26, 2023. She was born in Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ontario, on February 14, 1933, a Valentine’s Day baby. She was the youngest of four children who were all raised by their father, as a single parent. Hallie attended Ogden Elementary School and graduated from Selkirk Vocational High School with secretarial skills. She left Thunder Bay after a few years, to move to Toronto, where she worked as a legal secretary. She was interested in the arts and took ballet lessons, and then pursued her career in New York City for a number of years. She returned to Thunder Bay, where she worked as a personal assistant to the editor of the Times Journal, the local Thunder Bay newspaper. Hallie enjoyed gardening and often assisted her friend at the Gallery of Fine Arts, sometimes working on framing various art pieces, and collected a number of original art pieces.

She began working for Canada Revenue Agency and moved to Toronto, where she met and married Bernard (Les) Durkin in 1987. They purchased a vacation condominium in Naples, Florida and spent every winter there from 1989 to 2006. Hallie enjoyed listening to music, watching films and participating in tole painting and decorated many wonderful wooden baskets and wall art. She played tennis, loved to go for long walks and played golf with her husband. They also loved to travel. Hallie especially loved to cruise & they took many cruises – Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Panama, Alaska, along the US West Coast to Mexico, the Caribbean, and their long half world cruise in 2002 from China, across the Pacific, around South America, returning to Florida. Hallie & Bernard moved from Toronto to North Vancouver in 2006, where they lived in an apartment on Keith Road. Hallie loved it there – she & her husband tried to go out every day even just for coffee or a walk up Lonsdale Avenue. For the last nine years, Hallie has been a resident of the Berkley Care Centre in North Vancouver, where she received extraordinary care, love and affection from the staff and care givers.

Hallie was predeceased by her husband Bernard (Les) Durkin, her parents and her siblings. She is survived by her niece, Linda (Mench) Hookham (and family), her nephew, Allan Mench (and family), and her husband’s children, Margaret (Durkin) Gray (and family), Les Durkin and Gillian Durkin.