Mary Helen (Connolly) Stobie

Mary Stobie (nee Connolly) passed away on Saturday January 23, at the age of ninety.

Mary was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and was the third daughter of Helena and William Connolly.  Mary spent her youth and early womanhood there.  She attended St. Mary’s Academy in Winnipeg, where she met lifelong friends and had many adventures.  In 1946, at the of sixteen, she left school to work at T. Eaton company on Portage Ave, a landmark store for its era.  Mary began by bagging groceries in the basement of the store and ended her career there in 1967 on the eighth floor as an account manager, an accomplishment of which she was very proud. 

In her free time as a young woman, she enjoyed volunteering for St. John’s Ambulance, speed skating, roller skating, baseball, curling, reading, knitting, and traveling at any given opportunity.  Trips to Winnipeg Beach, train journeys to Minneapolis and vacations in New York, Jamaica, Haiti and England were on her highlight wheel. 

A touch unconventional for her era, Mary would say she “took her time” to settle down. She married Phillip (Ernie) Stobie in Winnipeg in 1967 and the couple moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where Ernie was stationed with the RCAF.  Mary began the next chapter of her life being a devoted wife and mother.  Mary and Ernie moved to Fort Macleod, Alberta in 1974 where she enjoyed small town life, and devoted herself to acts of kindness (which came naturally to her), raising her daughter and helping others.  She served many terms on the board of the Fort Macleod Figure Skating Club, supporting one of the favourite activities of her beloved daughter, Teresa. 

Ernie and Mary and moved to Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1991, upon Ernie retirement from Time Air.  There, Mary continued her hobbies; she and Ernie also enjoyed the community at the Lutheran Church Christ Trinity.  After Ernie’s passing, Mary resided in Edmonton with her daughter Teresa.  She spent her final years at McConnell Place and Lynnwood care facility, where she received excellent care and kind attention from the staff.

Mary is predeceased by her husband Ernie Stobie, and her sisters Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth Connolly. She will be missed by her daughter Teresa Stobie, her niece Betty Gray (Terry), her nephew Jack Turner (Sandra), Karen Jorgensen (who she considered her second daughter), step-granddaughter Arielle Ledgerwood as well as many other friends and family from across Canada and the UK.

A celebration of life will be scheduled for late summer or early fall depending on the current state of the pandemic.

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