JEAN

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JEAN McCONNELL MOFFITT (nee MURCHIE) A few days after a family reunion at her beloved Lake of the Woods, Jean Moffitt died in the early morning hours of July 27, 1999. Jean was born July 22, 1914 in Minto, Manitoba to Robert W. Murchie and Ethel McConnell. She studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she earned a degree in Social Work. While in Minneapolis, she met and married John M. Plaxton of Winnipeg, in the summer of 1935. Settling in Winnipeg, Jean became active in volunteer work with the Junior League and with a number of social agencies. In 1960, she began working for the Arthritis and Rheumatism Society in Winnipeg. Later she moved to Montreal to direct the Arthritis and Rheumatism Society for the province of Quebec and subsequently was director of the Montreal YWCA. Following work with the combined YM-YWCA in Ottawa, Jean moved again, this time to New York City, where she was in charge of national programs for the YWCA of the United States. She returned to Ottawa four years later to accept a senior position with the federal government and to develop and administer the New Horizons program. Jean retired in the late nineteen-seventies first sharing a house in Pebble Beach, California, with her sister Helen, then moving to Victoria, B.C., where in 1980, she met and married Frank S. Moffitt of Victoria and Delray Beach, Florida. Although she and Frank travelled extensively for several years, she kept in close touch with her family and remained active in the community, often serving in an advisory capacity and always willing to pitch in and give help where it was needed. While nursing her husband through his final illness, she was featured in the National Film Board documentary When the Day Comes. Following Franks death in 1990, Jean moved to Somerset House in Victoria, where she has made many new friends and has maintained a keen interest in activities there, most especially the bridge evenings and the weekly poetry readings. She has continued her interest in travel, cruising every year with a group of friends to locations as farflung as Copenhagen, Osaka, Vladivostok and the fiords of Labrador. She also frequently played hostess to her children and grandchildren, and still found the time and the energy to visit them in their homes in Ontario and Quebec. Four days before her death, surrounded by her four children and several of her grandchildren, Jean was guest of honour at a celebration of her 85th birthday, held at her sons summer camp on Big Tree Island, Lake of the Woods. For the past few years, Jean has worked hard at simplifying what has been a very rich and complex life. In her own person, she has defined the limits of the North American continent and of the twentieth century. She will be sorely missed by all those who knew her and loved her. She is survived by her children Gary Plaxton (Louise), Robert Plaxton (Margi), James Plaxton and Jill Johnston (Michael), by her grandchildren Michel, Elizabeth, Bruce, Jill, Laura, Karen, Jennifer, Simon, Lucianna, Kimberley, Phoebe, Joanna and Pamela, her great grandchildren Cathryn, Christopher, Danielle and Rebecca and by her step children Joan Moffitt Albu and Robert J. Moffitt. A memorial service to honour her memory will be held on the afternoon of Friday, August 6, at Somerset House, 540 Dallas Rd., in Victoria. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory to the Heart and Stroke Foundation will be greatly appreciated.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Aug 05, 1999