Kathleen (Kay) Jane Doeling, October 27, 1917 – February 15, 2015
The family of Kathleen Jane “Kay” Doeling regretfully announces her passing on Feb. 15 at the age of 97 years.
Kathleen was born in her parents’ homestead farmhouse in Vulcan County, Alberta, the only child of pioneers Frieda and John McRoberts. She rode on horseback, weather permitting, to Sunny Glen School through Grade 8, then boarded weekdays in Vulcan to attend high school. Her lifelong interest in Canadian politics came from reading Hansard in the evenings with her father, who had a subscription. Childhood visits to her mother’s relatives in Wisconsin and her father’s relatives in southern Ontario gave her a taste for travel at an early age. She attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton, receiving a B.A. in French and English in 1938 and a B.Ed. in 1939. During this time she joined the Grace Lutheran congregation, which was the first English-speaking Missouri Synod church in Edmonton, and she was there to celebrate the dedication of the little white church on 107th St.. This was followed by three years of teaching as principal at Hastings Coulee School, near Forestburg, Alberta.
Kathleen met Rev. William (Bill) Doeling from North Dakota while she was still in high school. He was a recent graduate of the Lutheran seminary in St. Louis, and his first call was to serve a south Alberta mission circuit of several communities, boarding with member families as he travelled. Kathleen had many happy memories of his visits to the farm in his car, the “Dakota Maid”, and of summer Walther League camps at Camp Chief Hector, the YMCA facility near Banff , which the Lutheran church rented for a week every year. They were married in 1942 and lived in Victoria, BC, where Rev. Doeling was by then serving at three mission stations. Their daughter, Linda, was born in 1944. Despite the privations of wartime, they were very happy living in that beautiful city. The Hope, Victoria mission rented space for Sunday services in a Seventh Day Adventist church, and Rev. Doeling also performed marriage ceremonies for naval servicemen and others in the parsonage, with Kathleen playing the piano brought from her parents’ farm. Longtime Grace, Edmonton member Able Seaman Felix Appelt was one of their many military church attendees at this time. Kathleen also had fond memories of long, if tiring, Sundays, with a service in Victoria in the mornings, then afternoon drives on the rough gravel road over the Malahat Pass to give services in Youbou and Duncan. Only a two-inch band of headlights was allowed at night, and trips home in the dark could be harrowing. Rev. Doeling died in 1945 from overworking a weak heart left from a childhood bout of rheumatic fever.
Kathleen returned to Edmonton with Linda, boarding with local Lutheran families until Linda was old enough for school, and lived in Edmonton for the rest of her full and rewarding life. She spent the remaining 36 years of her professional career at the Alberta Correspondence School, now the Alberta Distance Learning Centre, first correcting German lessons, and later as Associate Director. It was there she met Elizabeth Filipkowski, who soon became a very close friend and shared with her decades of activities and adventures, local and away. Marking student lessons from afar stimulated Kathleen’s interest in other countries, and she became an enthusiastic world traveller, starting with a lengthy bus tour of the U.S. in 1949, and continuing with many trips abroad after airplane travel became affordable in the 1950s. In the 1970s she became a devoted grandmother to Shannon and David Brownlee, and found a surprising amount of time for visits to southern Ontario to see them. She never forgot her farm roots, and kept in close touch with her Healy cousins in Vulcan County, as well as her Doeling in-laws in North Dakota. Visits to cousins in Ontario and Wisconsin also continued over the decades.
As long as she was able, she volunteered in the activities of her congregation at Grace, and filled many positions in Sunday School, LWML-C, Ladies’ Aid, archives and the library. She was an avid gardener and sports fan, spending 50 years attending Eskimo football games, and later Oilers hockey and Commonwealth Games in Edmonton and other countries. An arts enthusiast, she was a charter subscriber to Citadel Theatre productions (along with Grace friend, Norma Kreutz), and also enjoyed many years of symphony, opera, and organ concerts. Though her final thirteen years were spent in a wheelchair or bedridden, she retained her quiet good humor and alert mind, enjoying visits from friends and relatives. She knew she had had a rich life, and always made the best of what she had left, setting a very high standard of conduct for her family, who will miss her very much.
Lovingly remembered by her daughter Linda (Brian) Brownlee, grandchildren Shannon (Andrew Burke) and David Brownlee, dear friend Elizabeth Filipkowski, numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by husband Rev. William Doeling , parents Frieda and John McRoberts.
A funeral service and interment will be held at Bethel Lutheran Church, 405-3 St. S. Vulcan, Alberta Wed., Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. Donations may be made to Concordia Lutheran Seminary, 7040 Ada Boulevard, Edmonton AB T5B 4E3, or Caritas Foundation, Room 3C60, 11111 Jasper Ave.,Edmonton, AB T5K 0L4, designating Edmonton General Unit 5AB.
Arrangements in care of Vulcan Funeral Home. Telephone 403-485-2633. E-condolences through www.vulcanfuneralhome.ca
Please accept my sincere sympathy. I first met Mrs. Doweling in 1973 when she and Dr. Figur interviewed me for a position at the Alberta Correspondence School. She was a very special, hard-working lady.