Marguerite Yvonne McLean-Hewetson (nee Kinney) March 16, 1928 to April 6, 2022

Marguerite was born and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, the only child of Katherine (Kay) Hildred Kinney-Plotke (nee Higgins) and Wilfred (Wilf) Theodor Kinney. She was a young child during the Great Depression and came of age during World War II. Her ballet studies started at a young age at the school of her Aunt Marian in Edmonton. With Marian’s aid, encouragement, and planning, Marguerite moved on her own to Toronto in the late 1940s. She shared a room at the “Y” with fellow dancer Lois Smith, and continued her ballet studies with, and taught for, Janet Baldwin and Boris Volkov. In the summers she, like other young dancers, picked up dance gigs at the CNE’s bandshell shows.

Her high school sweetheart, James William McLean (1928-1990), followed her to Toronto and they were married there in 1950 in a small ceremony in the chapel at Timothy Eaton church, far away from their families – they had, in essence, eloped. With Jim an aspiring writer and Marguerite a dancer, the young couple were part of a vibrant community of artists and dancers in Toronto that included Lewis Parker (illustrator), Gerry Lazarre (painter), Ross Mendes (painter), Lois Smith (dancer), George Shane (cartoonist/commercial artist), Pat Patterson (broadcaster) and others who remained lifelong friends.

Shortly after their two children were born, they put their 1953 Studebaker in storage, pulled up stakes, and sailed out of New York City to the south of Spain, where they stayed for six months in a little fishing village, Castel de Ferro. They then settled in Reigate, England, for over three years, where they established what became lifelong careers as a freelance writing and producing team, creating film, TV, and radio items -- James the writer, and Marguerite the editor (and sometimes writer), production manager, and bookkeeper. While based in England, they left the children with friends and travelled to France, Italy, and up through Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, writing and presenting short travel and pop culture items for CBC radio – some of which are still occasionally hauled out of the archive and rebroadcast.

After another three-month stop in the south of Spain, this time in Fuenjirola, they returned to Toronto in the fall of 1962. Marguerite’s mother had arranged their purchase of a brand new bungalow in Scarborough’s Guildwood Village, but they eschewed the quiet suburbs and returned to their old stomping grounds, downtown in the Annex neighbourhood. For many years they were active volunteers in the Annex Ratepayers Association, including during its protests against the Spadina Expressway. Marguerite and Jim’s annual Christmas Eve party was a fixture on their street for several decades, and Marguerite’s regular lunches with The Tranby Tramps continued until quite recently.

In the late 1970s and 80s, Marguerite joined and later assumed leadership of the 21 McGill Club’s investment study group. Over subsequent decades she thoroughly enjoyed almost daily, and lively, discussions with her broker. She also bought and sold a few rental properties, and even one Mother’s Day in the 1980s surprised her family with the news that she’d bought a pool hall in Newmarket with a young friend.

From their office in the second floor bedroom, Marguerite and Jim continued a freelance partnership for the next almost 30 years, until Jim’s death during heart surgery in 1990. Their clients included the CBC, NFB, TVO, numerous private companies and a tenure together at the CBC’s Marketplace during its initial seasons in the 1970s.

Two years after James’s sudden death, Marguerite married painter and illustrator Roy Hewetson, an old friend of her and James’ from the early 1950s. Roy already had emphysema but they had five happy years together. As a way to pull herself together after James’s death, Marguerite took up tennis and played two or three times a week until she was no longer able to. Especially after Roy’s death, her circle of tennis friends and coaches were a central part of her life, and one of them, Bev Dales, was a great travelling companion on a number of river boat cruises in Europe and Russia.

Marguerite was well-known as a feisty woman – independent, adventurous, often sharp-tongued and with a mind of her own. But she was also generous – driving an aged aunt to Florida for many years, hosting family holiday dinners (until the year she forgot to turn the oven on for the turkey), lending money to enable a young friend to purchase a home or another to meet some bills, making her home available to friends and family when they needed it. Marguerite was also very happy to welcome her son’s wife, Gina Lubin, into the family and delighted that she, unlike her own daughter, makes a damn fine gravy. A life-long Liberal supporter, Marguerite felt it important to follow the business and political news closely and was fond of a rousing discussion of related topics.

Marguerite carried with her a dancer’s commitment to exercise regimes, which served her well during her first two strokes – one in the mid-1990s during a tennis game, and the second shortly after surgery for a broken leg in 2013. Physiotherapy and a Marguerite mind-set resulted in excellent recovery. However, a third stroke, at the age of 91 in 2019, left her wheelchair-bound and paralyzed on one side and with a scrambled mind. She continued to recognize her family and friends up to the end, and seemed content with a rather fluid boundary between her memories and reality. She died peacefully in the middle of the night at Sage Care in North York. Her cremated remains have been buried with those of James McLean in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

Marguerite had a clever mind, a practical approach, a dancer’s body and grace, a love of dressing fashionably, a sharp temper, a generous spirit, a dry humour, and a good laugh. Hers was a long life well lived. She loved and leaves behind her daughter, Michaelle Yvonne McLean, and son, Gavin James McLean and daughter-in-law, Gina Lubin. The oldest of a generation of Kinneys and Higgins, she also leaves behind first cousins with whom she shared a special bond: Donna Templeton (Hugh), Maggie Thompson (Gary), and John Rouse (Joan).

Wherever she might be (she was not religious), we expect she has booked the court and is happily playing tennis, after which she’ll enjoy a good scotch on the rocks.

There is no memorial planned. Please just raise a glass wherever you are or make a donation to a charity or political party of your choice.