JEAN MARGARET CANNON (SLATTERY)

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

JEAN MARGARET CANNON
(nee SLATTERY)
September 12, 1920 - April 4, 2020

Jean passed away peacefully in her 100th year at the Charleswood Care Centre.
Born in Winnipeg, she was long ago predeceased by her parents, Timothy Joseph and Jessie Caldwell Slattery, and her brother Frank. However, she enjoyed a 97 year bond of love with her younger sister Madeline, who passed in 2018. Sadly, Jean was also predeceased by her first grandchild Jessie.
Jean attended St. Mary's Academy in Winnipeg, where she graduated as head girl, before taking business classes and joining The Great West Life Assurance Company. It was there that she met her beloved husband Leslie A. Cannon, with whom she shared 54 happy years, before he passed in 1996. She adored him and he adored her. Jean encountered Les when she was secretary to the president of GWL and Les was a young actuary. In those bygone days, the company president actually signed the paychecks, and she distributed them to the head office staff. Les quickly took notice of the pretty young woman who regularly stopped by his desk.
Immediately following her 1942 marriage to Les, Jean and he travelled to Halifax, so Les could join his Royal Canadian Navy ship doing convoy duty in the North Atlantic. While she waited for Les's many returns to port, Jean kept herself busily employed as secretary to Robert Stanfield, then head of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board in Halifax.
At war's end, Jean and Les returned to Winnipeg, where Jean balanced motherhood, raising her three children, with charitable activities and community service. She was, at various times, treasurer of the Winnipeg Junior League, and president of the White Cross Guild, as well as a strong supporter of many other charities. She was sociable, kindly and thoughtful. Many elderly and
shut-in friends were the recipients of her regular visits, always with home baked muffins in hand.
Jean enjoyed golf at St. Charles Country Club, as well as curling at the Winnipeg Winter Club, either playing with her husband or "the girls". She was definitely an armchair athlete, regularly going to see the Bombers play and cheering her children and grandchildren's sports endeavours. Many hours were spent watching them curl and play tennis and hockey. In her eighties and nineties, Jean found a new love of travelling, taking many trips to Europe with her children, as well as journeys to such faraway places as Hong Kong, Singapore and Turkey. Jean was a great walker right up to her last year, and would tell everybody that she needed "to keep walking so she could go on trips with the kids." Indeed, Jean always counted her good health as a blessing and was able to live in her own home past her 99th birthday.
Her favourite vacation was always the family's (children and grandchildren) annual foray to Victoria Beach. Jean used to say, as she got older, that she never thought that she would still be able to have her entire, but wide spread, family gathered around one table at the same time. All her family cherishes the memory of Jean's last VB vacation in 2019, where everyone was together once more.
Jean leaves to mourn her cherished children, Bill (Tensia), Louise, and Jack, her daughter-in-law Elizabeth Salamon, as well as her much loved grandchildren, Theresa (Jason), Scott and Joan. She is also survived by nieces and nephews, Delia Courmanopoulos (Steve), Raymond Doutre, Paul Doutre (Doris), Eleanor Cramp (Harvey), Jack Vail (Audrey), Jack Cannon (Joyce) and Tom Cannon, and many great nieces and nephews. Jean outlived all her many friends of her own generation, but considered her children's friends to be her friends and they did too. The next generation marvelled at Jean's energy and spirit and crossed fingers that they could be as vital in their elder years.
Jean was a smart, pragmatic, caring and stylish woman, who would tell you that she had a wonderful life. Her distinguishing trait was her genuine interest in all other people. She could literally talk to anyone, and did. Everyone who knew her said she was special and she was. She will be missed.
Her family thanks her former personal home care workers and the caregivers at the Charleswood Care Centre who kept Jean comfortable in her final months.
If you wish to honour Jean, consider making a donation to a charity of your choice.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Apr 07, 2020, Apr 08, 2020, Apr 09, 2020