Yvonne Brennan

Born in 1930 in Port Huron, Michigan, to William and Olive (Lappan) Brennan, Yvonne was a force of nature. Her first career was glamorous: skating professionally in the ice shows, travelling around the world.

When it was time to settle down a bit, she chose the hotel business, one she was familiar with as a customer from her travels. In 1965, she was hired by Hilton Hotels, opening and doing commercial sales for new hotels in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois. She worked her way up to being the first female Director of Sales in the corporation.

She stayed with Hilton until she retired to take care of her parents through their eighties. She kept herself busy during retirement with part times jobs with Hertz (proudly driving professionally until her mid-eighties!), teaching skating to her great nieces and nephews, and spoiling some of them with vacations.

In addition to taking care of her parents and younger relatives, Yvonne’s greatest generosity was donating a kidney to her brother, William, in 1968; the first such transplant in Toronto. This gave her brother another two decades of life, and did not slow Yvonne down for the next 55 years.

Yvonne was predeceased by her parents and brothers William Joseph and Thomas Edward. She is survived by her niece and nephews Michaela (Mario), Paul, and Tim (Binnie);great-nieces and nephews Allison, Avery Jean, Nicole (Arrah), Samantha (Joseph), Tamsyn, and William; great-great-nieces and nephew Jaylee, Lilyana, Siyena and Jakai.

In her final years, Yvonne suffered from Alzheimer’s, and was cared for with compassion and respect by the staff at Chartwell Trilogy in Scarborough; the family thanks them for doing so well at such a challenging job. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Alzheimer Society of Canada would be appreciated.

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