Educator.
Born in Manitoba on 6 November 1899, daughter of Abby Anna McKibbin (1865-1941) and Ernest James Motley, she was educated at Kelvin High School where she was valedictorian and Governor General Medal winner. She received an Arts degree from the University of Manitoba. An accomplished pianist, she studied with the Toronto Conservatory at Winnipeg and Montreal, and in Paris. She taught piano and served on the executive of the Manitoba Music Teachers’ Association. In 1933, she enrolled in the newly formed Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and obtained a BEd degree. She taught English, French and German in Daniel McIntyre Collegiate and other Winnipeg high schools.
She was President of the University Women’s Club (1949-1951), Vice-President of the Women’s Canadian Club, Winnipeg President and National Vice-President of the Council of Women, and first Provincial President of the United Church Women (1962). In 1944, she married teacher William Bernhard Doerksen. They had no children.
She died at Winnipeg on 11 January 1971 and was buried in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.
1901 and 1911 Canada censuses, Automated Genealogy.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 25 March 1987, page 59.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 14 April 2022
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