‘A huge organizer’

Manitoba Golf Hall of Famer, volunteer, mother: Lorraine MacLeod put her all into everything she did

By: Jim Bender

Lorraine MacLeod, a Manitoba Golf Hall of Famer, will always be remembered as an indefatigable volunteer who poured her heart into every task she took on.

“She was a huge organizer,” said Bruce, 62, the oldest of her three children. “If she volunteered in something, she would organize it. She wasn’t just one who would take part and have a small role. She would run the show. She did that with just about everything — whether it was church or skating or golf, she would take the lead.”

MacLeod (née Bell) died on Aug. 24, 2024, at 91. She is survived by her children Bruce (Debbie), Heather (Greg) and Angus as well as grandchildren Brittany (Alex), Jaime (Scott) and Alex (Erika) and great grandchildren Miles and Mae.

MacLeod wanted to become a teacher but got polio when she was in Grade 10 in Morris. Her parents sent her to Winnipeg, where her grandparents lived, and where she spent a year in the hospital. She recovered, but eventually quit school and started to work as a bookkeeper in Morris, ending her teaching dream, although she did teach Sunday school.

A competitive figure skater, Mac-Leod organized the Morris Figure Skating Club with her sister, Dorothy. They coached kids aged three to 18 in free skating and dancing, and organized annual skating carnivals.

MacLeod was a dedicated coach.

“They say that Morris figure skating started in 1950 and in 1951 when they started the figure skating club,” said daughter Heather, 60.

Heather said MacLeod would have a half-hour figure skating lesson Sundays at the Winnipeg Ampitheatre. Afterwards, she’d walk down to an open-air rink on Sherbrook and practice what she’d learned for an hour and a half. Then, she’d go to the bus depot behind the Eaton’s store and take the bus back home to Morris, getting home about midnight.

Whatever she learned in her lesson, she’d teach to her students the next week.

MacLeod also played trumpet in the Morris Band, played hockey and baseball, was a CGIT leader and was involved with Rebekah Lodge, the female auxiliary of the International Order of Odd Fellows.

After marrying Angus MacLeod, she moved to Winnipeg, where she became a Sunday school superintendent and teacher at a United Church, taught skating to preschoolers and coached girls softball and soccer.

Her three children grew up in Winnipeg.

“Mom was just always there,” said Heather. “She was a stay-at-home mom. If we needed anything sports-related — I was on the volleyball team, she was the driver for the team. If it meant she had to make two trips to transport all of us kids to whatever tournament it was, whatever school it was, she was the driver. Just a big supporter of anything that we did as kids — always came to band concerts. She was just such a huge presence in our lives.”

Her son Angus, 59, concurred.

“She was just always there,” he echoed. “She got me interested in cars. She had a ’57 Chev and I would stand in front of the steering wheel — it was three-speed — and she’d say, ‘OK, second gear,’ and I would put it into second gear and she would hit the clutch.

“I’m still into driving. I’m a truck driver.”

Before their father died, the family made numerous trips together across North America, most of them involving golf.

Heather’s fondest memories are of the trips she took with her mother after her father died.

“She and I went up to Churchill one year,” said Heather, who became a teacher. “We took the train from Winnipeg up to Churchill and spent about a week there. Saw the polar bears, saw the beluga whales.”

MacLeod left her most indelible mark on the world of golf, a game she and her husband loved. She became a member of the Winnipeg Canoe Club, serving as tournament chair, volunteered at both national and provincial championships and wrote a history of the Canoe Club’s Ladies Golf, which appeared in J. Alan Hackett’s Manitoba Golf Links.

MacLeod served as president of Manitoba Ladies Golf Association during 1987-88 and on many committees with the Canadian Ladies Golf Association over the years.

In 1992-93, MacLeod was on the provincial courses rating team and tournament chair for the Southwood Ladies golf section and became its president in ’95. Then, she earned its Gal of the Year award in 1996.

“She was always such a gracious person,” said Bev Harris, a former rules official. “She was always so pleasant and helpful. She was always sort of there, like omnipresent. She wasn’t a rules official but she was always out on the course helping as a volunteer. A lovely lady.”

In 2000, the CLGA awarded Mac-Leod the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to ladies’ amateur golf in Canada.

From 2001 to 2003, MacLeod represented the MLGA on the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame selection committee and was inducted into it as a builder in 2014.

Don MacDonald, president of the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame, said both MacLeod and Joyce Collier were instrumental in establishing the hall in 2003.

“Everything Lorraine did, she was so detailed. She took responsibility for everything — every detail was covered, whether it was the biography of the golfers or the details of the induction ceremony. Lorraine played a huge role in that to make sure it met a standard that any inductee or family member was just so impressed by the induction ceremony. All credit for the establishment of that standard goes to Lorraine and Joyce Collier. So, we try to live up to that.”

Lorraine also greeted everyone with a smile.

“Lorraine also was a person who was so friendly,” MacDonald said. “She knew everyone in the golf community. She never sought any recognition or limelight, but full respect and credit to her for all she did … Lorraine was an outstanding person and volunteer.”

Lorraine also devoted a lot of time to the United Church, even during her later years when she became an unofficial greeter.

“My observation as a newcomer into the family was about the family environment — Christmas dinners and that sort of thing,” said son in law Greg, 57, adding that Lorraine was known for her Yorkshire pudding. “(She) always put a lot of effort into that, trying to bring the family together and, for all of Bruce’s kids, she made an effort to make sure they had gifts and asked them some questions to bring them into conversations — a huge heart and a big organizer.”

city@freepress.mb.ca