HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-01-21, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016.
Obituaries
and sister-in-law Donna Craig and
her husband Melvin.
Visitation was held at McBurney
Funeral Home Ltd., Wingham on
Friday, Jan. 15. The funeral service
was held at the funeral home chapel
on Saturday. Brian Hymers
officiated.
Memorial donations to the Heart
and Stroke Foundation or Knox
United Church, Belgrave would be
appreciated as expressions of
sympathy.
Online condolences may be left at
www.mcburneyfuneralhome.com
Ontario or Evangel Hall Mission
would be greatly appreciated.
Funeral arrangements were
entrusted to Falconer Funeral
Homes.
Messages of condolence for the
Barber and Mitchell family may be
sent to www.falconerfuneral
homes.com
Long-time Festival actor dies
DARLENE ANN (PIERCE)
SHOBBROOK
Darlene Ann nee Pierce passed
away peacefully on Jan. 15, 2016.
She was in her 76th year.
Darlene was the beloved wife of
Gordon Shobbrook for 57 years, the
adoring mother of Darrell
Shobbrook, Stratford and Diana
(Mark) Sjaarda, Auburn and the
loving grandmother of Ryan
Sjaarda. She was predeceased by her
loving son Trent (1971).
Darlene is survived by her sister
June (Charles) Knox, Goderich;
Ethel Adams, Wingham and brother-
in-law Dennis (Carol) Shobbrook,
Cambridge. She will be missed by
many nieces and nephews. Darlene
was predeceased by sister Doris
Laidlaw and her husband Jim;
brother James Pierce and his wife
Bernice and brother-in-law Sid
Adams
Friends and family were received
at Falconer Funeral Homes, Blyth
Chapel on Monday, Jan. 18. The
funeral service took place on
Tuesday, Jan. 19 at Londesborough
United Church. Spring interment
will be held at Blyth Union
Cemetery.
Donations to the Heart and Stroke
Foundation, Canadian Cancer
Society or Londesborough United
Church would be appreciated.
Condolences may be left at
www.falconerfuneralhomes.com
JOHN ROBERTSON TAYLOR
Jack Taylor of Belgrave, passed
away at Wingham and District
Hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 13,
2016. He was 93.
Jack was the loving husband of
Mary (Armstrong) Taylor and dear
father of Bob and Peggy Taylor,
Ripley; Marilyn and Nelson Dusky,
New Hamburg; Ron Taylor, RR 1,
Belgrave; Mary Ellen and Jim
Keller, Belgrave; Mark and Diane
Taylor, Mitchell and Trudy Taylor,
London. He was the cherished
grandfather of 12 grandchildren and
11 great-grandchildren. Jack was the
brother-in-law of Tom and Joan
Armstrong, Goderich.
He was predeceased by his parents
Orville and Ruby (Robertson)
Taylor, grandson Steven Taylor,
great-grandson Ryan Wood, brother
Lloyd Taylor and his wife Bertha
REVEREND WILLIAM (BILL)
BARBER
Rev. William (Bill) Barber passed
away peacefully at Spruce Lodge in
Stratford on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016.
He was in his 89th year.
Bill was the loving husband of
Laura Barber, nee Urquhart, for 55
years and dear father of Neil and
Marie Mitchell, Walton, and son,
Daryl. He was the proud grandpa of
Emily, Sean, Sarah and Claire
Mitchell. He is also survived by
nieces and nephews Bob and Sharon
Matthews, Grant Matthews, Dr. June
Matthews and Ibrahim Moharram,
Gerald and Mary Golem and their
families, as well as sisters-in-law
Leila Kjarside, Eileen Urquhart and
Violet Urquhart and their families.
Bill was predeceased by his parents
Harold and Charlotte (Porter)
Barber, his brother-in-law and sister
Art and Islay Matthews, and nephew
Keith Matthews, as well as brothers -
and sisters -in law, Donald Urquhart,
Wilmer and Mary Urquhart,
Christina Hanna, Kris Kjarside and
Allan Urquhart.
Bill was born in Normanby
Township in 1927. In the late 1950s,
he left the family farm and pursued
an education as he felt called to the
ministry. He graduated from
Presbyterian College in Montreal in
1966. Bill served his ordained
missionary appointment in Melfort,
Saskatchewan. He also served in St.
Andrews and Southminster in
Brandon, Manitoba, and Knox in
Lloydminster, Alberta. Returning to
Ontario in 1984, Bill served in First
Presbyterian, Seaforth and St.
Andrews Presbyterian, Clinton, and
Livingston Presbyterian, Baden,
before retiring to Bayfield, where he
provided supply at Knox
Presbyterian Church for seven years.
Friends were received at the
Falconer Funeral Home, Clinton on
Wednesday, Jan. 20. The funeral
service will be held at Knox
Presbyterian Church, Cranbrook on
Thursday, Jan. 21 at 11 a.m.
Interment will take place at
Maplewood Cemetery near Durham
in the spring.
Memorial donations to Ronald
McDonald House of Southwestern
Remembered
Jerry Franken, seen here alongside Sarah Allen in the 2005
Blyth Festival production of Powers and Gloria, will be
remembered for his many years performing at the Festival.
(File photo)
JERRY FRANKEN
Jerry Franken, one of the most
familiar faces during 12 seasons on
the Blyth Festival stage, is being
mourned by the Canadian theatre
community following his death in
Mitchell Jan. 15, following a
lengthy illness.
Franken last appeared on the
Festival stage in 2006 and more
recently has been a member of the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival
company before ill -health caused his
retirement.
"Very, very few actors have
walked as many miles on the stage at
Blyth as Jerry did," wrote Blyth
Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt
in an e-mail tribute. "Jerry was so
popular with our audience at Blyth,
that there was a time when we used
to joke that people would probably
buy tickets just to watch him sit in a
chair and read out the Listowel
phone book."
Garratt directed Franken in
Another Season's Harvest in 2006
and acted with him in Powers and
Gloria in 2005, a role that was
created specifically for him by
playwright Keith Roulston.
Franken first came to the Festival
in the 1990s when Katherine Kaszas
was artistic director and
returned under Peter Smith,
Anne Chislett and Eric Coates.
"There's a real feeling of kinship
there," Franken told The Citizen in a
2005 interview. "I live in Stratford
but most of the work I do is in
Montreal, Ottawa or Winnipeg and
Blyth. Although I don't live there,
I've been coming back for so long
that it's like working at home.
"Despite changes from year to
year with actors and such, there's a
real communal effort to it that I
enjoy and you don't get anywhere
else."
As well as Blyth and Stratford he
appeared at many theatres across
Canada. He was closely associated
with the stage work of famed
poet/playwright James Reaney,
particularly in his trilogy of plays on
the Donnelly massacre at Lucan. He
became such a family friend that he
lived on the old Reaney homestead
near Stratford from 1986 until the
last few years.
Born in Edmonton in 1947,
Franken studied theatre in San
Francisco. He worked for three
years at the Manitoba Theatre
Centre in Winnipeg before he moved
to Nova Scotia. He first came to
prominence in Ontario in the 1970s
as associate artistic director of
Toronto's NDWT theatre
company which produced
See histories and historic
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Reaney's Donnelly trilogy.
Nationally, he is perhaps best
known for creating the role of
Morgan in Michael Healey's The
Drawer Boy at Toronto's Theatre
Passe Muraille in 1999 (opposite
another Blyth Festival legend, David
Fox, playing Angus). The
production would be one of the most
successful in Canadian stage history,
touring across Canada.
When The Drawer Boy was
produced at Blyth in 2002, Franken
switched roles and played Angus.
He also starred in George F.
Walker's Filthy Rich at Blyth.
In 2003 he played the iconic role
of Newfoundlander Jacob Mercer in
Leaving Home by David French.
As well as acting on the Blyth
stage, he also directed, including the
premiere of Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! in
1998.
A visitation was scheduled for
Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 6 p.m. at the
Revival House, Stratford.
"His sharp wit, his natural charm,
his innate crankiness and his
amazing generosity were singular,"
said Garratt. "Jerry loved Blyth and
he loved this audience and every
time he walked on stage he gave of
himself, full bore, and he did it for
us, for all of us. They just don't
make them like that anymore."
ei egne/m&irof
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