Community activist.
Born at Brandon on 11 June 1929, daughter of Marion Frances Anderson (1900-1958) and Milburn Barker (1900-1982), she spent most of her life in Winnipeg, growing up in the Wolseley and River Heights neighbourhoods. She attended Laura Secord School and Gordon Bell High School. From 1949 to 1954, she worked as secretary to the University of Manitoba Students' Union. On 16 May 1953, she married Bruce Hayles (1930-2016, son of Charles Edward Hayles) and they had two children. During this period, she became active in the work of the Junior League.
In 1978, she became Executive Director of the Volunteer Centre of Winnipeg and worked to develop volunteer services to schools of the Winnipeg School Division. She also founded Contact Community Information, a referral service on community programs. In the 1970s, she was a board member of the Age and Opportunity Centre, a committee member of the United Way of Winnipeg, and a board member of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. In the 1980s, she chaired the Canadian Associations of Volunteer Bureaux/Centres, was a board member of National Voluntary Organizations, and a member of the Core Area Advisory Committee, and a board member of Partners in the Park. In the 1990s, she was Board Chair of The Winnipeg Foundation (1997-2000), Co-Chair of the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations, a member of the Leaders of the Way Committee/United Way of Winnipeg and Winnipeg Library Steering Committee, President of the Winnipeg Child and Family Services Agency, and President of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In the 2000s, she was a board member of the Pavilion Gallery Museum and Arts Stabilization Manitoba.
In recognition of her exemplary community service, she was inducted into the Order of Canada (2001) and she received a Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).
She died at Winnipeg on 14 November 2021.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 27 November 2021.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 27 November 2021
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