Sometimes the voice would be that of a prime minister or a prime minister’s wife. Or maybe the governor general. Or the mayor. And the challenge was usually a request for Hale to do something to make her city better, her country better, the world better.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Visiting her Fuller Street home, Bayne House, said to be Ottawa’s oldest house, was like stepping into history, Watson said. She joined Morrison Lamothe in 1966, became president in 1979 and chair of the board in 1989. She oversaw production of the Centennial cake, which stood 20 feet tall, was slathered in 700 pounds of icing and fed the 40,000 Canadians who came to Parliament Hill for the country’s birthday bash.
“There is only one thing I ask of you, and that is to be contributors,” was her father’s deathbed message to his daughters, she wrote in her memoir.Advertisement 6Bibi Patel, a former vice-president of the foundation who retired last year, knew Hale for more than 20 years. She called Hale the foundation’s “North Star”.
And what a rich life it was. Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space, were among the people she knew and entertained. Yousuf and Estrellita Karsh were guests at Bayne House, and once, at the request of Maureen McTeer, wife of former prime minister Joe Clark, Hale hosted a dinner party for the spouses of world leaders, much to the consternation of the RCMP’s security detail.
Dear Grete. RIP