Marjorie Marne Isabelle Blain

Marjorie (Marne) Blain passed away peacefully in Calgary on Saturday, March 27th, just weeks short of her 106th birthday. As anyone who knew her (and she told everyone she met) Marne was from Galt, Ontario (now a part of Cambridge) where she grew up with her sister Elizabeth Rae who predeceased her several years ago. Daughter of a prominent Galt businessman and mother (William Dakin and Jessie Campbell-McCallum), she grew up a competitive singer in her younger years, met and married William (Bill) Blain, whom she always described as the best-looking man in Kitchener, who came from a family of six brothers. Shortly thereafter Marne and Bill moved to Toronto where their only daughter, Penelope (Penny), was born. The Blain household in Toronto was always busy, frequently home to Marne’s niece and nephew, Carole Ann (now Billin) and Robin Pringle, who went on to careers and to raise families elsewhere in the United States and Canada. In Kitchener, the Blain home, and the homes of the Blain brothers’, were likewise continuous centers of never to be missed family activities, impromptu get-togethers and festivities … with Marne and her five sisters-in-laws ensuring that all members of the growing Blain Family were always welcomed and cared for. Similarly, the Billin home and family in New Hampshire became a regular place to visit each year, a tradition Marne continued well into her 90s. Home, however, was always Galt, where Marne’s mother and sister lived most of their lives. Throughout their marriage, Marne and Bill’s life revolved around life and work in Toronto, some travel to the UK with other Blain brothers, always much family activity in Galt and Kitchener, then later the Niagara area where Penny and her husband lived for several years. Couples’ dancing became an important part of their life, as did organizing and managing the Seniors’ program at Taylor Place in Don Mills close to where they lived. Following Bill’s death in 1977, Marne and several lady friends continued promoting and organizing the Seniors’ program, did some more travelling, played cards regularly, and once every month commandeered a restaurant and staff somewhere in Don Mills for lunch.

As well as being a wife, mother, aunt, caregiver to her own mother, and grandmother, Marne maintained an active working career. After she and Bill moved to Toronto, Marne worked for an electrical manufacturing company where she met her life-long friend, Janet Mueller, whose daughter Sharon Townsend remains Penny’s life-long friend. Shortly thereafter, she joined the Ontario Department of Labour, ultimately retiring as assistant to the Department’s Director, a career which was one of her proudest accomplishments. In addition to family and social activities, retirement brought a second career managing a doctor’s office at Sunnybrook Hospital for several years (where, it is reported, she fibbed about her age in order to gain the position), participation on the board of her condo association in Toronto, and many trips to Calgary for Christmases and to care for her granddaughters while parents travelled.

In 2010 Marne gave up her car and friends in Toronto and moved to Calgary to be closer to family, ultimately making Garrison Senior Community her home, where she became one of their oldest residents.

She leaves behind her daughter Penelope Taylor and husband David of Calgary and Arizona, her niece Carole Ann in New Hampshire, three granddaughters, Jennifer Kennedy (Sean) and Karah Thompson (Wayne) in Calgary, and Erin Taylor-Peckover (Brent) in Kitchener, eight great grandchildren in Alberta and Ontario, a sister-in-law Adelle in Kitchener, many nieces and nephews and their families, plus extended families from her career days, spread throughout Canada and the United States.

Interment at Mountview Cemetery in Cambridge on Monday, July 26th.