BETTY MAY HALSTEAD

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BETTY MAY HALSTEAD Born September 9, 1935 in Winnipeg; passed away April 1, 2004 at St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg. Betty was predeceased by her parents, Rev. Stan McLeod and Margaret (Peggy) McLeod; her beloved Aunt May Dempsey and a number of aunts, uncles and cousins. She leaves to mourn her passing husband Roy; children, Eric, Shaun (Sheila) and Liisa; grandchildren, Michael, Hunter, Tyler and Nikolas; brothers, Neil (Lyn) and Glen (Cheryl) nieces, Dana (Michael), Robin (Darcy), Kristin and Dara; cousin and friend Beverly Walker and personal friends and associates by the score. Bettys education was lifelong, with high school graduation from Daniel McIntyre Collegiate, a BA from United College in 1956, and a B. Ed. from University of Manitoba in 1961. She was an avid reader all her life with a love for fiction, biography, history and current events. In her retirement years she became involved with Creative Retirement, attending the public lecture series offered by them both as auditor and, at times, as chairperson and host. Bettys career was in Education. She started teaching in 1957 at Glenlawn Collegiate in St. Vital. During her years at Glenlawn she taught English at grades 11 and 12. She also directed the school choir and was an enthusiastic producer of the schools yearly variety shows. During this period she also directed plays at St. Vital United church where a number of her Glenlawn students attended. Betty and Roy were married in 1960 and Betty "retired" a year later to raise a family. After their three children were in school she returned to teaching at Windsor School in St. Vital, where she taught Language Arts and Social Studies at the junior high level for 23 years. During these years she worked with the student council and helped the students in publishing their yearbooks. Also during her Windsor years she wrote scripts for the Manitoba Schools radio broadcasts in the area of Health education and edited a series of school texts for the Peguis Publishing Company. After her retirement from public school teaching she was employed to teach the Canadian Safety Councils "55 Alive" Seniors Driving Program with sessions in Winnipeg and in rural Manitoba. She also was a marker of Provincial High School English exams for the Province of Manitoba for a number of years. Beyond her family and her teaching Bettys other great enthusiasms were in world travel, music, the church and in community service. Betty and Roy started travelling in 1972. From then till 2002 they visited 36 countries both in Central and South America; in Europe from the Arctic Ocean in Norway to Italy and Spain; from the eastern Mediterranean in Israel and Greece, to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa; from Russia to China and Thailand; and in the Pacific Ocean from Australia and New Zealand in the south to the Pribilov Islands in the Aleutian Sea in the north. Their travels in North America took them from the Arctic Ocean in northern Alaska to the foot of California with visits to all ten Canadian provinces and numerous American states. During this travel Roy took thousands of slides, which Betty subsequently used to create slide shows with her inimitable good humour and carefully researched narrative which she then presented regularly to seniors at Fred Douglas Lodge, Amber Meadows and at Westminster Church. She was also a very popular presenter at Creative Retirements open forum slide shows. "Travel" also meant happy times spent at her parents cottage at Oliver Lake, ON when the children were growing up and visits with Roy and her friends to Clear Lake Lodge in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba. Betty was a singer with a strong, sure, soprano voice. As a young person she sang in the choir at her fathers church (St. Pauls United, Winnipeg), then moved to the choir at Westminster United where she sang for 47 years. She also sang in the chorus of Manitoba Opera productions for 13 years. Over the last 2 years she was a member of the womens choir, Fair Warning. As a listener she had seasons tickets to several concert series and, with Roy, attended three full presentations of Wagners Ring cycle, one in Bayreuth, Germany, and two different productions of the Seattle Opera. Along with music she also loved theatre (providing plays "ended right") where she had seasons tickets to Manitoba Theatre Centre and Prairie Theatre Exchange productions. She was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and many of her and Roys summers included visits to the Shaw and the Shakespeare festivals in southern Ontario. Betty, a PK (Preachers Kid), was born into the church and remained active in it all her life. In Westminster, beyond her choir participation, she was a member of the churchs Official Board for 13 years. She served as Board chair for two years, was chair for four years each of the Ministry and Personnel Committee and the Communications Committee. She served two years as chair of the Christian Education Committee and currently was a member of the Outreach and Refugee Committees where she personally took responsibility for raising $10,000 to help a young Bosnian family establish themselves in Canada. Community service was very important to Betty. She was, for two years, chair of the CGIT Conference Board. She served for six years as secretary of the YWCA Board where she also acted as coordinator of the Y-Neighbour programs. She was on the boards of Fred Douglas lodge (two years), the St. Vital Teachers Association Executive (six years), and the University of Winnipeg Alumni Association Executive (three years). Since her retirement she has been active with Creative Retirement, Manitoba, serving on the Board and on the Program committee, and chairing public lectures organized by CR. Most recently she has been a Board member of Virtuosi Concert Series. This outline of Bettys various activities begins to read like her famous multi-paged Christmas letters which she wrote for many years and sent to friends and relatives both in North America, Europe, Asia , Africa and Australia. At Christmas, 2003, she had been in hospital since October and simply didnt have the energy to write one more letter. She did, however, write an opening paragraph in which she likened her 2003 year to the Queens annus horribilus, having moved from a broken ankle in February (while walking the dog, Brie) to an operation for stomach cancer in October with chemo-therapy in December. She, nevertheless, was a strong and positive human being to the end. Her family thanks the excellent staff on the seventh floor, St. Boniface Hospital, and her close friends Anne, Frances and Norma for making her last months as happy and as comfortable as possible. We also thank her friends from her early years, from teaching days, from the church and from her many activities who visited, sent cards, letters and gifts and who let her know how much they cared about her. Bettys life was under-scored by a love for Gods people and for His world. She will be sorely missed by her family and friends. Cremation has taken place. A service in Bettys memory will take place on Saturday, April 10, at 10:00 a.m. in Westminster United Church, Maryland at Westminster, Rev. Robert Campbell and Rose Ferries officiating. No flowers please. Donations in her memory may be made to the church or charity of your choice. THOMSON Funeral Chapels - 669 Broadway - 783-7211

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Apr 07, 2004