Marion Stayner
Matriarch, librarian, volunteer, prairie patriot. Born March 27, 1917, in Minnedosa, Man. Died Nov. 3, 2011, in Ottawa of an aneurysm, aged 94.
Feisty frequently comes in small packages, and that is the perfect description of Molly Stayner. Just over five feet and of Scottish background, Molly was the second of two daughters born to Jessie and David Stone.
After some movement around Canada in the early years, the Stones eventually settled in Saskatoon. Growing up on the Prairies during the Depression left a deep impact on Molly, who never lost the lessons of sharing and conservation. She also had a lifelong bond with Saskatoon and Saskatchewan.
In 1938, Molly graduated with a BA from the University of Saskatchewan, where she met Dick Stayner, who was studying law. After joining the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, he was posted from Saskatoon to Hagersville, Ont. She took the train out to Toronto to marry him later that year.
Diverted when their car broke down on the way to their honeymoon in Niagara Falls, they ended up honeymooning in Hamilton, near where their oldest daughter, Penny, was later born in 1942. When Dick departed for England that year, Molly joined forces with her beloved sister Margaret Murray to raise their two children together in Saskatoon until their husbands returned home from the war.
Not only a matriarch who never hesitated to loudly speak her mind, Molly was also a role model and inspiration. In 1966, at 49, she was widowed when Dick died of a heart attack. With three of their four children – Bob, Maggie and Barbara – still living at home, she went to work at the Saskatoon Public Library in 1967.
In 1972, she earned her bachelor's degree in library science from the University of Alberta. It was a difficult year living in Edmonton away from her family to hit the books, but her hard work resulted in a promotion. She retired as a branch head librarian in Saskatoon in 1982. In the process she taught her family the valuable lesson that it's never too late to reinvent yourself.
Molly stayed energetic and healthy well into her 80s. She travelled frequently within Canada to visit family and friends, as well as venturing to Central America, Australia and Europe. She was an adult-literacy volunteer, a driver for the cancer clinic and worked in the YWCA Saskatoon Opportunities Shop.
Always happiest when she could debate some topic loudly and to her advantage, with a rye and water in hand, Molly was our "ever-loving Nan." With her feisty, combative and witty nature, she definitely wasn't your typical warm and fuzzy grandmother. But she'll be remembered for her amazing ginger snaps that would arrive every Christmas, competitive gin-rummy games, her perfect pattern for knitting mittens, spoiling her grandpuppies rotten and her many outspoken comments, which were widely shared, with much laughter, among all of the family.
Katherine Magee is Molly's granddaughter.