ELIZABETH (BETTY) AGNES

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

ELIZABETH (BETTY) AGNES McLENNAN Winnipeg has lost one of its best. For seven decades, Betty McLennan spread her bountiful energy, wit and infectious laughter across this city. In the spring of this year friends and family gathered at Assiniboine Park Conservatory for a joyous 75th birthday party in her honour. Fall has arrived and we gather again. Her spark has left the home fire and now glows among us. Betty passed away Sunday, September 15, 2002 after having suffered a heart attack on Saturday afternoon. Betty was born March 22, 1927 in St. Boniface Hospital to teenage parents - one of the Winnipeg General Strike, Wilfred Schram and the other of Northern Ireland, Nellie Mills. Mom was their third daughter, born when the Schrams lived on Gwendoline Street. Soon they moved to Ross Avenue in Weston, where Betty attended Cecil Rhodes School and Sparling United Church. She always kept track of the Weston folks. Mom started working during the war years, first at the Corona movie theatre, and lived her life as a grand movie buff. She then took work in the services at Number One Equipment Depot and began to spread her friendly spirit. She became part of a circle of women who provided unending support to one another through their lives, the Black Cat Club. After the Second World War, a young veteran from Russell, MB, Eric McLennan crossed her path. Their engagement was on the highest level and their marriage was deep. Together, Betty and Eric had three children. They chose a simple home in Shaughnessy Heights, where Betty remained until her passing. There, Bettys love of Winnipeg spread through the neighbourhood and beyond. She worked part-time at Eatons in the Cash Office and at the Information Desk, while the kids were growing up. She curled at Victoria Curling Club as her father had before her and served as President of the Ladies Curling League there. Later she joined the businesswomens league at Thistle. When the kids were old enough, she returned to full-time work with Statistics Canada, where she finished her working career. Mom enjoyed many years of retirement and was an avid traveller overseas to Ireland to visit the relatives and south to San Diego to winter beside her beloved Pacific Ocean. She travelled to World Curling Championships across the pond and here in North America and was a keen and meticulous curling fan, especially cheering for her favourite, Cathy Overton-Clapham. In 1997, Eric died and in time, Betty rebounded. She continued to travel, adamantly kept the house, and was always very busy with the gang from Coronation Street. She frequently did lunches with the Black Cats, the Eatons Retirees and the Victoria Ladies. Days were dotted with chats with neighbours across the fence, movies, and most of all her little dog, Sheba. Betty was a never ending support to her children, grandchildren and special nephews, Jay and Kelly Kent. She was a sage listener and insisted on spinning the bright side of every situation. She was not unfamiliar with adversity, having lost her eldest child, Rick, in a car accident in 1985, but "life is good", she would say, after a tear or two, and onward we would go. Betty was the centre of a vibrant extended family of Schram cousins and surrogate cousins and neighbours who will sincerely miss her and who thought, because of her magical spunk, that she would last forever. She is predeceased by her husband Eric, son Rick, brother Buddy, sister Helen Kent and parents, Wilf and Nellie Schram. She is survived by her sister Georgie Schram, her daughter Nola Young, Robert, Holly, Colleen, Stewart Young and Blair (Jill), Robin, and April Catagas; her daughter Nancy McLennan, Steve Hackler, Neal, and Charley (Amber McGrath). Also mourning her passing are many relatives including Basil, Evelyn, Clifford and others in Northern Ireland; Lauren, Gordon and Tracy Cartwright, Jay and Kelly Kent, Dawn Neufeld, Win and Darren Schram, Lois Dodds, Beryl Gould, Helen and Stan Armstrong, Jim and Marie McLennan and Margaret Tallis, their families and other precious friends across Canada. We are all very sad. The funeral will take place at Neil Bardal Inc., 984 Portage Ave. entrance on Aubrey Street, on Wednesday, September 18, 2002, at 2:00 p.m. Donations can be sent to the World Wildlife Fund in Bettys memory, or to the charity of your choice. NEIL BARDAL INC. 949-2200

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 18, 2002