Avis de décès de Judy White - Nécrologie - MesAieux.com

WHITE, Judy Cecile Wife, Mother, Secretary, Pianist, Dancer, Puzzle Solver, Gardener and Lover of Life. She passed away peacefully on October 15, 2005. With a spirit as free as the winds of the Yorkshire Moors where she was raised, Judy White was a woman of breathtaking wit and intelligence, and a romantic soul as sweet as Harrogate treacle toffee. An inspiration to us all. She was born on February 20, 1922, in a stone cottage in the village of Eastby, Yorkshire, the daughter of Cecil and Irene Fearn (Gledhill). At age two she showed her adventurous side by digging under the backyard fence and escaping to the wideopen Moors; her mother had "kittens," the story goes. It was one of several Yorkshire homes as she accompanied her mother and father, a First World War recipient of the Military Cross for bravery, who became a bank manager in historic Skipton and later in Ripon (where he served as the town's mayor in the 1950s). One of Judy's favourite memories was stepping over stones to cross the Wharf River at Bolton Abbey, and walking home along the paths of the Moors, watching out for bulls. She went to school at a Skipton convent and later attended boarding school in Seascale, spending summers in Ripon. In 1938, she relished a school trip to pre-war Paris. "It is just marvellous," she reported to her parents. "Life is just wonderful." In 1940, she went to secretarial college and took economics at Leeds University. She was accepted at Cambridge University but war called her away to an ammunitions factory in Risley, where she served as an executive secretary. Near the war's end, she was assigned by the transportation ministry to work as a financial assistant for an aircraft manufacturer in Harrogate. On May 21, 1945, she married Capt. Geoffrey Owen White a top-flight dancer with irresistible charm at Ripon Cathedral, the origins of which date to the 7th century. They lived in the town's bank house for nearly a year before leaving for Gravesend, near London, where her husband took up civil engineering. She resumed her career as an executive secretary. She also designed and constructed the gardens for two homes the Whites built. When her daughter Barbara was born in 1949, she began a new career as full-time Mother. Her son Roger was born in 1954. In 1957, the family relocated to Canada. Her husband was the municipal engineer in Oak Bay until 1979. All the while, Judy White fulfilled her roles as wife, mother and domestic engineer, dispensing enormous portions of wisdom leavened with Yorkshire humour. She loved the challenge of cryptic crosswords, dispatching several books of Daily Telegraph puzzles in a single week. She travelled back to old England on a number of occasions, as well as to New England. She is predeceased by Geoffrey, her husband of nearly 55 years, and will be profoundly missed by her daughter Barbara and her partner John Frederiksen, son Roger and his wife Pamela, granddaughters Jennifer and Anastassia and nephew Stephen Pell in London, as well as many friends. A celebration of her life will be held at McCall Bros. Floral Chapel, Johnson at Vancouver Streets, on Saturday, October 22, 2005 at 11:00 am. Reception to follow in the Graham and Torrey McCall Family Center. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the Red Cross. Condolences may be offered to the family at www.mccallbros.com . 163676