An irrepressible positive force in the community
The Central Manitoulin Community Hall was packed to overflowing as Island community members gathered to pay their respects to one of Manitoulin’s truly remarkable individuals. G. Joanne Smith touched countless lives during her lifetime with her unsinkable personality, her music, her acting, her career as an educator and her passionate support of local history—particularly, in recent years, the Mindemoya Old School.
Together with her husband Jim, the couple was widely acknowledged as a dynamic duo. Joanne and Jim had helped to organize a Christmas singalong, at the very location in which her celebration of life was held, the day she passed away. It was an event hosted by the Central Manitoulin Historical Society and Friends of Mindemoya Old School, both of which see the Smiths as steadfast volunteers.
Some of Joanne’s last memories would have been filled with song, a fitting end for a woman whose life was filled with song and who filled others’ lives with music, often starting from a very young age.
photo by Michael Erskine
Much of the outpouring of memories online and in-person stemmed from former pupils of “Mrs. Smith,” who was the music teacher at the Mindemoya High School, Little Current Public School and at Lakeview School near the end of her decades-long career in education. Together with her husband, Joanne also taught at Kenjgewin Teg, both in the early days of its founding in a set of portables and in the later new facility in M’Chigeeng. Her musicals live on in the memories of many a student and for many, she began a lifelong love of music.
At her celebration of life, a heartbroken Jim shared the story of their friendship-turned romance, his children Tara and Kevin offering him comfort as he spoke, his voice often breaking with grief.
Jim recalled the pair at Joanne’s Mindemoya home, coming up with a plan to start a Mindemoya High School choir which would debut with a Christmas concert. They decided upon ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ and ‘Carol of the Bells’ for their first set. The high schoolers knew the words to ‘Little Drummer Boy’ no problem, but ‘Carol of the Bells’ posed a bit of a problem, so they sat upon Joanne’s floor and played the 45 record over and over, scribbling down the lyrics as they heard them. They were interrupted once by a knock at the door. It was the late Toots McDermid, there selling Avon. Jim recalled Toots’ eyes twinkled with delight at the sight of the two of them together. Joanne perused the Avon products and settled on a tester of perfume, ‘Wishing.’ Joanne misread the package. “It’s called ‘Viking’?” she asked Toots. “No! You need to have your eyes checked, Joanne,” Toots chided.
That Christmas Joanne found a package under her tree from Jim. It was a full-size bottle of Wishing, but the package was marked ‘Viking.’
After Grade 13, the friends went their separate ways. Jim to Queen’s, where he also ran track, and Joanne to Western. That first semester, an upcoming track meet was to be held at Western so Jim thought to call up his old pal Joanne. Her roommate informed him she had gone back to Manitoulin for the weekend.
The following Monday he had a phone call at his dorm. It was Joanne. She announced that she and a few friends would be headed to Kingston that weekend to watch Western take on Queen’s in the Vanier Cup. She ordered blind dates for she and her friends. Jim agreed to take on the task.
Later that week Jim met “the bevy of beauties” off the train with eligible young bachelors in tow. Joanne looked around expectantly. “You’re my date?” she asked Jim. He affirmed this query. “Tough, baby,” he told her.
The Vanier Cup was their first official date, but by the Queen’s Homecoming dance, on a beautiful moonlit night, they were falling in love, and never looked back.
Neil Debassige, past principal of Lakeview School, called Joanne an “agent of change” at his school. He told the gathering that Joanne made Lakeview School a place where students and staff alike felt the love, life and music she brought to the halls. He often found comfort and advice from the Smiths, both life-long educators, and found friendship in their ranks for he and his family.
Dave Nelder grew up with Joanne and shared that Joanne was always a bright penny, among the best students in class who excelled in everything she did due to brains and sheer determination. He shared that he was not as perfect a student as Joanne, especially in Latin, a subject he did not enjoy. Following the teacher handing out test results in a Latin exam, Dave was shocked when he received a 99 percent and Joanne was floored, and miffed, to receive a 61 percent. She looked at Dave and said, “This is a mistake—this has to be your score.” Dave could not help but agree, so the students approached the teacher, telling him they believed he had mixed up their marks. Indeed, he had, so the teacher gave them both 99 percent.
Carolyn Lane-Rock, another retired educator, spoke of the dear friendship she and her late husband Bill had with the Smiths. She learned that when you begin the life of a volunteer extraordinaire it sometimes behooves you to “pay the bills and keep your mouth shut” when it comes to the betterment of the community (this after being roped into being into becoming treasurer of a Manitoulin Secondary School anniversary event). She likened Joanne to a sister.
Jan McQuay, a fellow mover and shaker of the Mindemoya volunteer world, knew Joanne and sister Marion “since she developed consciousness” of the world around her, she said. Many of the stories shared that day were ones of Joanne’s caring, giving and loving nature. The Smiths were neighbours of Jan’s late mother and father, Mary and Dr. John McQuay. When Jan’s mother passed away, she bought herself a new suit to wear to the funeral, but the pants were too long and in need of hemming. A few hours before the funeral was to begin Jan was attempting to hem the pants herself. Joanne whisked in and said, “I can do that!” took the garment and “within a flash” was back with the pants hemmed and ready to wear. “That was the kind of person Joanne was,” Jan said.
Ms. Smith and her sister Marion even started a clothing shop, Hawberry Habit, where they sold their own innovative creations for many years. Ms. Smith also scored music for her sister’s series of murder mystery plays that played to full houses during the ‘90s. The sisters directed many other theatrical productions through the years—including ambitious productions such as ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘Brigadoon.’
Daughter Tara spoke of the love she and her mother shared. Joanne, as mothers do, coming in at the 11th hour to save the day. When Tara returned to school after the birth of her daughter to gain her OACs she had to take two courses in English and two in math if she wanted to gain entry to university. Lucky for her, both parents were experts in these fields, respectively. One English final, worth a large chunk of her final mark, had Tara either write a 10-page essay on a poem or memorize and recite the “Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy from Macbeth. Putting it off to the last minute, she decided on the soliloquy. With the help of her mom, on the eve of the recitation, she memorized it. Upon delivery in school, Tara shared she froze and couldn’t do it. The teacher had all the students turn to face the wall. Tara summoned up her courage and, feeling her mother’s presence by her side, nailed it. She aced the final.
Tara said she felt her English teacher mother’s presence that very morning as she wrote her tribute, being careful to never plagiarize nor leave any dangling participles, to much laughter from the crowd.
For close friends Seija and Wayne Bailey, “the spark went out of Christmas.” She and her husband joined the Smiths on many expeditions away from their beloved isle to seek out venues offering opportunities to dance to the big band sound.
Ms. Bailey noted that her friend Joanne was an accomplished musician, “she could play anything.”
One of her great passions, and she had enough of those to fill a dozen hearts, was music and, along with husband Jim, the pair played with the famed Manitoulin Swing Band.
“I only had the pleasure of knowing Joanne for a handful of years, but what full years those were,” said fellow band member Warren Schlote. “When I joined the Manitoulin Swing Band, she was always reassuring and welcoming as I tried to keep up with all these amazing musicians. She was always quick with a smile and laugh, and pushed me to sit in on many tunes, even if I didn’t know them. She had a way of making you feel comfortable, like you’d known her for your whole life. And I don’t think there’s a single life on Manitoulin Island that hasn’t been impacted by her, directly or indirectly. I will forever hear her songs in my heart.”
Linda Erskine, who moved to Manitoulin in 1990 with her husband Expositor scribe Michael, recalled how Ms. Smith and her husband “made us feel welcome when we first came to the Island. They were so kind and helpful to us, strangers until a minute after we met them.”
Ms. Bailey recalled her friend’s vivacious and vibrant character and how, together with Ms. Smith’s husband Jim, the couple were truly Manitoulin’s dream team.
