Obituary of Doris Ann Lemon

To view the livestream service, please click here

Doris Ann Lemon was born in Waterdown Ontario in May 1928.  She was the daughter of Arthur and Alice Hood (nee Berry).  She grew up on the farm and had stories of the long walks to school, or standing at the Hamilton market, doing chores, hard work, favorite animals, candling eggs, pulling weeds, picking stones out of the fields, unheated farmhouse bedroom.  Doris was smart and excelled at school.  She said she was the smartest kid at school and smarter than any of the boys.  She became a legal secretary at Stephens and Milne in Hamilton, took beautiful shorthand and could type 97 words a minute.  She married Hugh T. Lemon (d. 2011) of Strabane on December 10, 1950.  Tom was born in 1955 and Kathy Aitken in 1956 (d. 2017).  Doris is survived by 6 grandchildren (Tom & Dr. Rosemarie Kennaley’s: Alex, Sarah, Danielle and Kathy & Rev. Bruce Aitken’s: Scott, Paul, Luke) and 10 great grandchildren: Aiden & Jace Lemon (Hugo Minnesota), Jade Aitken (North Bay), Jack, Sawyer and Elle Aitken (Huntsville), Rayla and Leia (d.) Aitken (Strathmore Alberta), and Zachary and Lizzie Light (Alberta).  Doris married Bob Miller (d. 2017) and for the last several years enjoyed the company of Paul Dixon of Waterloo.  She is survived by her brother Doug and wife Bea (Collingwood), sister-in-law June Lemon (Port Dover), cousins, nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews.  Family meant a lot to Doris.

Doris became involved in family histories and published more than a dozen genealogies on multiple family lines.  She was proud of her Dutch ancestors (Wyckoff) who settled in the New York City area in the 1600’s, and her United Empire Loyalist ancestors who left the US during the American Revolution settling in Norfolk County (Port Dover- Port Rowan area).  She became an expert on Loyalist history in southwest Ontario, the War of 1812, and Major General Sir Isaac Brock.  At 80 she earned a BA in history from the University of Waterloo.  She documented her Loyalist ancestry (Jonathan and Mary Williams), earning the designation “UE” from the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada.  She was an active member of the Grand River Branch of the UEL, and a contributor to the archives at the Eva Brook Donly Museum in Simcoe.  For the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, she recruited Bob Rennie to take on the role of Sir Isaac Brock in historical uniform to appear at special events which continue to this day.  Doris gave many presentations in period costume about life in the 1700’s and early 1800’s.  She was also interested in Canadian art and artists, birds, flower arranging and gardening, music and enjoyed her summer cottage near Tobermory for 50 years.  Doris self-published a children’s book entitled Explore The Bruce with Scott – The Tip of the Elephants Tail, that sold out quickly in Tobermory book stores with each limited print run.  She loved to sing and dance.  She was a gracious and fun host, good cook, good bridge player and tough rummy player (the grandkids said she bent the rules).  She was very active and made great friends including a life-long group from Waterdown (the “Golden Girls”), Applewood United Church in Mississauga, the Discussion Group on Henley Road, the Newcomers No Host Dinner Club in KW, KW Garden Club, KW Art Gallery, founded the Farmer’s Daughters’ at Luther Village, Games Night at Luther Village, the Gin Girls movie nights, President of the Low Vision Group of Waterloo, worked on numerous elections for Waterloo Mayors, Provincial and Federal candidates.  As anyone who was, will attest, it was great to be in Doris’ circle and she will be missed.  If she was here, she’d already have asked if you have a Loyalist ancestor.

Thank you to Dr. Kennaley, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Harlick, Dr. Trussler, St. Mary’s Hospital - 5^th floor, Freeport Hospital Palliative Care Unit, to Sabina, Saba and Tamara from Warm Embrace & Tensaye from Bloom.

Visitation will be held at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King St. S., Waterloo on Friday May 5th from 6-8 p.m. and Saturday May 6^th from 2-4 p.m. The funeral service will take place at First United Church, 16 William St. W., Waterloo on Sunday May 7^th at 2:00pm., followed by a reception in the church hall. The service will be livestreamed via a link on the funeral home’s website. A private family interment will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, condolences for the family and donations to Eva Brook Donly Museum, Simcoe, the Grand River Branch of the United Empire Loyalists, or to the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada – Scholarship Fund or Nature Conservancy of Canada may be arranged through the funeral home at www.erbgood.com.