Obituary for Lorraine Marlene Thompson (Dutton)
Lorraine Marlene Thompson
February 24th, 1921 – May 23rd, 2022
We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved matriarch, Lorraine Marlene Thompson, 101 years young, in Oakville, Ontario. We are also deeply grateful for the life she lived, and for all that she gave us.
She was born Lorraine Dutton on February 24th, 1921, in Govan, Saskatchewan. Her parents, William L. Dutton and Dorothy Jeanette (Dolly) Dutton, did not give her a middle name, so at age 16, she convinced her father to allow her one of her own. Her choice: Marlene, after silver screen icon Marlene Dietrich.
It was an early demonstration of a desire for self-definition she would harness to shape her life and earn the admiration of all. In her parents, she had powerful role models of whom she was very proud: her father was a contractor who built beds for highways and the transnational railway, and her mother was one of the few women to drive a car in Virden, Manitoba, the town of 1,400 in which Lorraine grew up amid the Great Depression and loved throughout her life.
As a young woman, she was an accomplished athlete. She competed in track and field and eagerly anticipated skating to a live band in winter. As she recounted in her 2019 autobiography, Lucky in Love, “It was like dancing, or like floating on a breeze. Throughout the evening, the boys would ask the girls to skate with them for one of the band's 10 numbers. If you were a good skater, which I was, you would have all your numbers booked.”
Lorraine rode horses, played baseball, and, many decades before it became a popular sport for women and girls, played hockey. She was also an avid curler, and a voracious lifelong fan of the sport. Lorraine recounted that she curled at an Elkhorn bonspiel while six months pregnant with her youngest, Laurie Ann – while her physician was “watching our game and shaking his head at me.”
Music was also important to Lorraine. She sang in the church choir, school musicals, prairie fowl suppers, and at weddings as a soloist – and she played the baritone in the Virden Citizen’s Band at events in rural Manitoba.
At age 19, Lorraine was introduced to John Thompson, an Elkhorn, Manitoba lawyer and budding politician. She was 13 years his junior and thought he was “perfect and as smart as the dickens.” Her courtship with and marriage to John was the most important story of her life. She loved him passionately and publicly, never hesitating, before or after his passing in 1986, to express her gratitude for what she considered her good fortune. The inspiration for the title of Lucky in Love, in fact, came from her signature expression after winning a hand at bridge, whist or rummy: “Lucky in cards, lucky in love.”
Their partnership gave them four children and took the family from small-town Manitoba to the big city of Winnipeg and back, as John served as mayor of Elkhorn, MLA for Virden, and as a federal judge.
Lorraine and John were married in 1942 and had Mary (Marlene) the next year, followed by Dorothy in 1945, an era in which Lorraine still chopped ice and split wood outside their cottage home in Elkhorn. John Junior arrived in 1951, and 15 years into their marriage appeared Laurie Ann – Laurie being John’s term of endearment for Lorraine. Lorraine and John cherished their time in Elkhorn, and made lifelong friends.
Being very curious, Lorraine was a domestic engineer in the broadest sense and loved inventing solutions around the home. She engaged in many pursuits, including volunteering for and supporting the many activities of her growing family, such as figure skating, hockey, 4-H, music and Girl Guides. She was also a lifetime member of the Rebekah Lodge and of Winnipeg’s Victoria General Hospital Guild, where she served a term as president and volunteered for more than 30 years. As well, she embraced her role as political wife with great vigour and pride. In 1959, she and John, in his role as Minister of Municipal Affairs, hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at an official dinner in Winnipeg.
Lorraine became a widow at age 65 and adjusted to her new life in a number of ways, including travel to the United States, Europe and all across Canada that deepened her already formidable relationships with friends and family. These trips included many winters in Arizona and Hawaii with sister Bernice, brother Bill and sister-in-law Donna – whom Lorraine viewed as a sister in the truest sense. This era was a special one for Lorraine and she frequently expressed gratitude for the generosity of Bill and Donna and the time the foursome shared.
Boldness, decisiveness and a willingness to change (except for, categorically, her Conservative political affiliation) were qualities that would never leave her. She swore she would never get on a plane – but did at age 47, to welcome her second grandson, Andris, in Nova Scotia. She swore she would never leave sight of land, but on the occasion of her 90th birthday took her first cruise – with 23 family members. She bought her first home at age 80 as a widow (and started an exercise class in her building), returned to piano lessons at age 85, got an iPad and Facebook account at 89 and decided it was time to stop driving at 94. At that same time, after living her entire life in Manitoba and Saskatchewan but recognizing she would need more support as she aged, she decided to move to Toronto, where three children were living.
Proud and independent as she was, especially having lived alone for more than 35 years after John’s passing, Lorraine was willing to accept the help essential to living at such an advanced age, probably because she could not bear the prospect of missing anything. A century-wide swath of friends and family can attest to her unrelenting interest in hearing their news and her marking of milestones with a well-timed card, letter, phone call, email, FaceTime or in-person visit. It would be fair to credit her long life to her interest in other people, along with an innate fighting spirit, in that they kept her mind sharp – an acuity that included an encyclopedic knowledge of prairie life, surprised a stream of medical professionals in her later years and was a source of immense pride and admiration among her family.
In recent years, Lorraine met several challenges with her characteristic positive spirit. She constantly expressed gratitude to caregivers and love for her children even as her life was coming to a peaceful close.
Lorraine loved laughter, and even more than that, loved hearing her children laugh together. She was a naturally hilarious truth-teller with countless zingers to her credit and was never afraid to share an opinion, whether solicited or not. During a hospital stay at age 100, a physiotherapist visiting Lorraine’s room had opportunity to see a stunning 1959 photo of Lorraine in the Winnipeg Free Press. She reported to the therapist: “My husband fell in love with that face.”
Lorraine is survived by her children Marlene (Tony) Bogert of Toronto, Dorothy (Bill) Willson of Burlington, John (Karen Fraser) Thompson of Toronto, and Laurie Ann Thompson of Winnipeg; grandchildren Richard (Samantha Swift) Pone, Andris Pone, and Ashley Thompson; great grandchildren Elena Pone, Juliet Pone, Zarah Pone, Maddie Rowe and Ellie Rowe; brother Bill Dutton; and many beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.
Lorraine was predeceased by her husband, the Honourable John W. M. Thompson, parents Bill and Dolly Dutton, sister Bernice Daniels Wright, sister-in-law Donna Dutton, brothers-in-law Fred Daniels and Howard Wright and niece Fredelle Daniels.
A special thank you to Beverly Leonard, Mom’s caregiver and friend, as well as her compassionate caregivers at Chartwell and Sunrise.
Please think of Mom as you are planting your clematis, hollyhock, irises and gladiolas, her favourite garden flowers. In lieu of flowers, you may wish to donate to Special Olympics, Canadian Down Syndrome Society, The Canadian Cancer Society, The Alzheimer Society of Canada, or a charity of choice.
There will be a service for Lorraine later this year, in Virden. Interment will follow in Elkhorn.
February 24th, 1921 – May 23rd, 2022
We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved matriarch, Lorraine Marlene Thompson, 101 years young, in Oakville, Ontario. We are also deeply grateful for the life she lived, and for all that she gave us.
She was born Lorraine Dutton on February 24th, 1921, in Govan, Saskatchewan. Her parents, William L. Dutton and Dorothy Jeanette (Dolly) Dutton, did not give her a middle name, so at age 16, she convinced her father to allow her one of her own. Her choice: Marlene, after silver screen icon Marlene Dietrich.
It was an early demonstration of a desire for self-definition she would harness to shape her life and earn the admiration of all. In her parents, she had powerful role models of whom she was very proud: her father was a contractor who built beds for highways and the transnational railway, and her mother was one of the few women to drive a car in Virden, Manitoba, the town of 1,400 in which Lorraine grew up amid the Great Depression and loved throughout her life.
As a young woman, she was an accomplished athlete. She competed in track and field and eagerly anticipated skating to a live band in winter. As she recounted in her 2019 autobiography, Lucky in Love, “It was like dancing, or like floating on a breeze. Throughout the evening, the boys would ask the girls to skate with them for one of the band's 10 numbers. If you were a good skater, which I was, you would have all your numbers booked.”
Lorraine rode horses, played baseball, and, many decades before it became a popular sport for women and girls, played hockey. She was also an avid curler, and a voracious lifelong fan of the sport. Lorraine recounted that she curled at an Elkhorn bonspiel while six months pregnant with her youngest, Laurie Ann – while her physician was “watching our game and shaking his head at me.”
Music was also important to Lorraine. She sang in the church choir, school musicals, prairie fowl suppers, and at weddings as a soloist – and she played the baritone in the Virden Citizen’s Band at events in rural Manitoba.
At age 19, Lorraine was introduced to John Thompson, an Elkhorn, Manitoba lawyer and budding politician. She was 13 years his junior and thought he was “perfect and as smart as the dickens.” Her courtship with and marriage to John was the most important story of her life. She loved him passionately and publicly, never hesitating, before or after his passing in 1986, to express her gratitude for what she considered her good fortune. The inspiration for the title of Lucky in Love, in fact, came from her signature expression after winning a hand at bridge, whist or rummy: “Lucky in cards, lucky in love.”
Their partnership gave them four children and took the family from small-town Manitoba to the big city of Winnipeg and back, as John served as mayor of Elkhorn, MLA for Virden, and as a federal judge.
Lorraine and John were married in 1942 and had Mary (Marlene) the next year, followed by Dorothy in 1945, an era in which Lorraine still chopped ice and split wood outside their cottage home in Elkhorn. John Junior arrived in 1951, and 15 years into their marriage appeared Laurie Ann – Laurie being John’s term of endearment for Lorraine. Lorraine and John cherished their time in Elkhorn, and made lifelong friends.
Being very curious, Lorraine was a domestic engineer in the broadest sense and loved inventing solutions around the home. She engaged in many pursuits, including volunteering for and supporting the many activities of her growing family, such as figure skating, hockey, 4-H, music and Girl Guides. She was also a lifetime member of the Rebekah Lodge and of Winnipeg’s Victoria General Hospital Guild, where she served a term as president and volunteered for more than 30 years. As well, she embraced her role as political wife with great vigour and pride. In 1959, she and John, in his role as Minister of Municipal Affairs, hosted Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at an official dinner in Winnipeg.
Lorraine became a widow at age 65 and adjusted to her new life in a number of ways, including travel to the United States, Europe and all across Canada that deepened her already formidable relationships with friends and family. These trips included many winters in Arizona and Hawaii with sister Bernice, brother Bill and sister-in-law Donna – whom Lorraine viewed as a sister in the truest sense. This era was a special one for Lorraine and she frequently expressed gratitude for the generosity of Bill and Donna and the time the foursome shared.
Boldness, decisiveness and a willingness to change (except for, categorically, her Conservative political affiliation) were qualities that would never leave her. She swore she would never get on a plane – but did at age 47, to welcome her second grandson, Andris, in Nova Scotia. She swore she would never leave sight of land, but on the occasion of her 90th birthday took her first cruise – with 23 family members. She bought her first home at age 80 as a widow (and started an exercise class in her building), returned to piano lessons at age 85, got an iPad and Facebook account at 89 and decided it was time to stop driving at 94. At that same time, after living her entire life in Manitoba and Saskatchewan but recognizing she would need more support as she aged, she decided to move to Toronto, where three children were living.
Proud and independent as she was, especially having lived alone for more than 35 years after John’s passing, Lorraine was willing to accept the help essential to living at such an advanced age, probably because she could not bear the prospect of missing anything. A century-wide swath of friends and family can attest to her unrelenting interest in hearing their news and her marking of milestones with a well-timed card, letter, phone call, email, FaceTime or in-person visit. It would be fair to credit her long life to her interest in other people, along with an innate fighting spirit, in that they kept her mind sharp – an acuity that included an encyclopedic knowledge of prairie life, surprised a stream of medical professionals in her later years and was a source of immense pride and admiration among her family.
In recent years, Lorraine met several challenges with her characteristic positive spirit. She constantly expressed gratitude to caregivers and love for her children even as her life was coming to a peaceful close.
Lorraine loved laughter, and even more than that, loved hearing her children laugh together. She was a naturally hilarious truth-teller with countless zingers to her credit and was never afraid to share an opinion, whether solicited or not. During a hospital stay at age 100, a physiotherapist visiting Lorraine’s room had opportunity to see a stunning 1959 photo of Lorraine in the Winnipeg Free Press. She reported to the therapist: “My husband fell in love with that face.”
Lorraine is survived by her children Marlene (Tony) Bogert of Toronto, Dorothy (Bill) Willson of Burlington, John (Karen Fraser) Thompson of Toronto, and Laurie Ann Thompson of Winnipeg; grandchildren Richard (Samantha Swift) Pone, Andris Pone, and Ashley Thompson; great grandchildren Elena Pone, Juliet Pone, Zarah Pone, Maddie Rowe and Ellie Rowe; brother Bill Dutton; and many beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.
Lorraine was predeceased by her husband, the Honourable John W. M. Thompson, parents Bill and Dolly Dutton, sister Bernice Daniels Wright, sister-in-law Donna Dutton, brothers-in-law Fred Daniels and Howard Wright and niece Fredelle Daniels.
A special thank you to Beverly Leonard, Mom’s caregiver and friend, as well as her compassionate caregivers at Chartwell and Sunrise.
Please think of Mom as you are planting your clematis, hollyhock, irises and gladiolas, her favourite garden flowers. In lieu of flowers, you may wish to donate to Special Olympics, Canadian Down Syndrome Society, The Canadian Cancer Society, The Alzheimer Society of Canada, or a charity of choice.
There will be a service for Lorraine later this year, in Virden. Interment will follow in Elkhorn.