Marilee Kathleen was born Friday, October 1, 1948 in Bourlamaque, Val-d’Or, Quebec to Sidney Lee and Marie “Mary” Louise Rose (Mallette) Moore. She was the third of four children; Gary, Wayne, Marilee and Kendall James.
The Moore children attended the English speaking LaMaque Public School and then St. Joseph’s Catholic High School. In 1964, Marilee was at an English speaking restaurant when she caught the eye of a handsome man in uniform. Donald George Lake was in the Air Force and they soon began dating. Their relationship cumulated in a wedding on Saturday, January 8, 1966 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Chatsworth. Gerald joined the family later that year in 1966 and Roy in 1969. The Lakes originally settled in Owen Sound before moves took them to Chatsworth and Port Elgin. Their final move took them to Paisley in 1973. The family had many dogs always being a part of their family.
Growing up in the early 60s, Marilee started her involvement with the Cub and Boy Scouts. Her father was a district scout master when she was younger, so she would go to meetings with him. She continued volunteering as a leader when her boys were growing up. Another tradition that Marilee passed on to her boys from when she was younger was camping and fishing. She loved an adventure and passing that tradition on to her children. The Lake family had a trailer at Heron Point Campground, near Stokes Bay since the early 2000s. The family also travelled across Canada in a tent.
Bourlamaque, the town Marilee grew up in, was a tight-knit community of mining company families. Over the years, many of reunions were held to reunite these families and allowed them to reconnect. Marilee would always look forward to these reunions as it would give her a chance to visit with the people she shared so many memories with as a younger child. You can take the girl out of Val-D’or, but you can’t take Val-D’or out of the girl!
Marilee spent time working for the Chamber of Commerce in Port Elgin before joining Gerald Patterson and team in Paisley. In time, she became an agent before later working for Ken McLean’s Insurance. In 2013 Marilee began working for the Bruce County Library in Paisley. She loved her time here, particularly when the kids came in looking for books. She was known to read most current novels and even children’s books. That way if there was a question, she would surely be able to answer it!
While working at the library, she became involved with the annual, local toy drive in Paisley every Christmas. She loved collecting all the items and delivering it once she had made up the packages. Helping others in her community was a passion of Marilee’s. Marilee was very social and loved spending time on her iPad checking out Facebook. Listening to the Rankin Family was cherished as was listening to 60s radio stations, 70s music, sing-a-longs, and dancing with her children while making pancakes. Marilee always had the radio on in the background.
Marilee loved playing Bingo and she would be happy to show up with her bingo bag that had her lucky dabber! One of her favourite parts about playing bingo was the social aspect. Marilee enjoyed any opportunity that she had to engage with the community. She also enjoyed opening Nevada tickets as well as scratch tickets.
Marilee had a passion for collecting a variety of frog figurines, angels, Santas, spoons, plates, and especially Swarovski crystal. Her favourite colour was dark red or burgundy. Of course, camping season was her favourite time of year as well as Christmas and family holidays.
When it came to being in the kitchen, Marilee was a great cook no matter what she was cooking, a skill that she learned from her mother-in-law. The only exception were the dill pickles she would can each year. The story goes that she didn’t like dill pickles, however when she would make them each year, she wasn’t quite sure how they were to taste. One year they would be the most delicious batch of pickles and the next could be a batch that didn’t have as much flavour. She had quite the sweet tooth and loved family meals together especially dinners that included ham or turkey with all the fixings – with pie for dessert.
Social, wonderful sense of humour, cheerful, kind, empathetic, happy go lucky and friendly were some of the many words to describe Marilee. However, like all Quebecers, one dare not tick her off! Marilee was known for her laugh. She was always laughing and helped bring laughter into everyone’s life that was around her. She taught her family the importance of laughter, tolerance, and the sense of adventure. The people who were most influential in the life were her Dad, her mother-in-law and of course, her husband Don. She had a respect for honouring the past, as several of her family members were involved with the military and Royal Canadian Legion.
In 2020 Don and Marilee downsized, selling their former family home and relocated to rental property in Paisley. Sadly, as a result of her cancer spreading to her spine, Marilee moved into Brucelea Haven in November 2020 to be cared for. She passed away at Brucelea Haven, on Thursday, August 19, 2021 in her 73rd year.
Beloved wife of Donald Lake. Cherished mother of Gerald (Nancy Cameron) of Chestermere, Alberta and Roy of Newmarket. Marilee will be dearly missed by her brothers Gary (Jenny) Moore of Suffield, Alberta and Wayne (Jane) Moore of Collingwood. She will be fondly remembered by Don’s siblings, Judith (David) Greig, Marilyn (Tom) McNabb, Bruce (Lois) Lake, Carol (Gary) Erwin and Cathy (Steve) Beattie. Marilee was predeceased by her brother Kendall Moore and her parents Sidney and Mary (Mallette) Moore.
A public visitation will be held at Rhody Family Funeral Home, Chesley on Tuesday, August 24, 2021 from 7-9 p.m, and on Wednesday, August 25, 2021 from 1-1:45 p.m. A private funeral service honouring Marilee’s life will be held on Wednesday, August 25, 2021. A recording of the service will be available on the funeral home website in the days following.
Memorial donations to the Canadian Cancer Society, Paisley Toy Drive (cheques payable to the Paisley Missionary Church, in memo line, please write “Food Bank – Toys”), or the Canadian Liver Foundation would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.
