Olive Veronica St. Cyr

Olive is survived by her sister, Earla (George); her daughter, Wendy; Son, Sherwayne; daughters in-law, Thora and Lynn; her grandchildren, Kirk, Teneisha, Mattieau, Kahlil, Nigel (Meagan), Luke (Kim), and Nyah (Tayron); her great grandchildren, Triniti, Jade, Judah, Kenzo, and Tiago. Her many nieces and nephews across the globe; Daniel “Danny”, Bernadette “Bonny”, Bernice, Lyn, Terry, Kim, Lawrence, Isabel, Justin, Anthony, Francis, Joy, Christopher, Rianna, Shinika, Kofi, Charles, and Nicole. As well as her special granddaughters, Ingrid and Jermin.

She is predeceased by her son, Raymond; her siblings, Didymus “Sonny”, Lynette, Bernadette, and Gregory.

Olive immigrated to Canada in the early 1960’s, first working in the sewing factories of Toronto’s Garment District. She eventually landed a job at T. Eaton Company, working in her field of accounting. Olive worked for Eaton’s for 37 years, retiring as an Accounting Supervisor.

Throughout her life she was heavily involved with many community organizations. In Trinidad she was an active member of Lanes Social and Literary Club, where she participated in community theatre, played on several sports teams and planned social events. In Canada, she continued to be community minded, participating in several organizations like the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), The Harriet Tubman Community Organization, York Community Services, Jane Woolner Neighbourhood Services, Scadding Court Community Centre and Toronto and Scarborough Boards of Education. Wherever she volunteered, she would always promote and encourage the learning of Black history, especially the contributions of African peoples to Canadian society. One of her greatest contributions was serving as a founding member of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana, in 1967.

Olive was a creative spirit and expressed her creativity through various mediums. One of her favourite forms of expression was fashion. As a talented seamstress, she would create exciting fashion looks for herself, her family, and community. She would often showcase her designs in community and church fashion shows. In support of her other passion for theatre, Olive would do the costuming for her original plays. She wrote several plays including “Ask Me Who I Am”, “When Africa Crossed the Atlantic”, “Great Expectations in a Suitcase”, as well as several other plays for Christmas and Black History month. Her love of the theatre led her, in 1975, to be a cast member in the play Strange Fruit with Salome Bey. The play was about the Black American experience, featuring an all-female cast. Strange Fruit was performed at Harbourfront, in celebration of the first International Women’s Year.

She was a long-time member of Grant A.M.E. Church where she served faithfully as the head of the Stewardess and Deaconess board for many years. She brought the Harriet Tubman Creative Learning Program to Grant Church, a program that focused on tutoring youth both from Grant as well as the local community and teaching them about Black History. Throughout her time at Grant she served in several ministries, including the Trustee board, The Young People’s Division, the Lay Organization, the Prime Timers and the Elizabeth Hackley Women’s Missionary Society, where she is honoured as a Torchlighter.

Olive was a woman of God, a lifelong learner, a historian, a creative, an advocate and activist, a mentor, a beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and sister.

She will be dearly missed by her family, friends, and loved ones.

A visitation for Olive will be held Sunday, January 19, 2025 from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Jerrett Funeral Homes, 660 Kennedy Road, Toronto, ON M1K2B5. A funeral service will occur Monday, January 20, 2025 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at Grant African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2029 Gerrard St E, Toronto, ON M4E 2B3.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Olive's memory may be made to Grant AME Church - WMS, 2029 Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario CA.

https://ipickart.com/stream/OliveVeronicaSt.Cyr/