OBITUARY
Kathleen “Kay” Jean MacBeth
January 22, 1922 – July 21, 2018
MACBETH, KATHLEEN “KAY” (NEE MACRITCHIE): Kay passed away peacefully at the age of 96 and has gone home to be with her Lord and reunited with her beloved husband Ross and son Don.
Born on January 22, 1922 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Kay is predeceased by her 2 brothers Peter and Angus, and parents Malcolm and Isabella MacRitchie.
Kay met Donald Ross MacBeth “Ross” in Edmonton before the war and they married shortly after in 1946. While Ross was overseas, Kay was recruited to play for the Edmonton Grads Women’s Basketball team, a team whose record still has not been beaten to this day. Kay was honoured to be inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, as the last surviving member of the Grads, she represented her team with pride.
Ross who was an officer in the RCAF and Kay raised their children, Donald (1947- 2009) and Kerry (John Carmichael) in Winnipeg, Manitoba and later settled in Comox, British Columbia in 1961. She is the beloved grandmother to Larissa MacBeth, Stacey Norwood (Pat), Christin Carmichael Greb (Michael), Michael Carmichael (Connie), Julie O’Driscoll (Jan), Donald and Calum MacBeth; adored by her great-grandchildren John and Mackenzie Carmichael, Harrison, Jackson, and Isla Greb, and Grayson and Wyatt O’Driscoll.
Kay was a fixture in Courtenay and Comox, British Columbia for decades. She had a long career as a paralegal with Terry Ryan and Associates. After retirement, she could be found playing the ukulele and piano with her Heartstrings gang, playing piano for weddings of countless young people all over the Valley, presiding at the piano for Robbie Burns night at the Celtic Club, assisting the annual high school musical at Tsolum School, or on the course at the Comox Valley Golf Club. She was at church on Sunday mornings either playing piano or organ and spent her weeks helping those in her community and all the younger people from her church, whom she inevitably adopted and they her, as Grandma Kay. She always enjoyed having her family from Ontario visit in the summers, especially her grandchildren, whom she would show off around town to her friends usually over a meal at White Spot. Kay spent the last 6 years of her life living in Ontario surrounded by her loved ones. Her one abiding desire near the end was to return to her beloved Comox Valley, and we have fulfilled her wish. She will be buried with her husband, and mother in the Courtenay Civic Cemetery.
We want to thank everyone who has touched Kay’s life, especially those who have helped care for her in her later years in Toronto: Del Manor Seniors Residence; The Briton House; and finally the amazing team of nurses and staff at the Isabel and Arthur Meighan Manor. A celebration of Kay’s life will be held at Piercy’s Funeral Home on Saturday, August 4 at 12:30pm, in Courtenay, British Columbia.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
(John 5: 24)
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Kathleen Kay Jean MacBeth 2018.source
Death notice for the town of: courtenay, Province: Colombie britanique