Educator, community activist.
Born at Regina, Saskatchewan on 20 May 1912 to blacksmith James Hamilton Moore and seamstress Annie Hunter, she acquired a specialist certificate as a young woman for teaching kindergarten and began her professional career in Regina. However, after she married fellow educator Wesley Crawford Lorimer in 1940, she was forced to give up teaching by a Regina School Board policy forbidding the employment of married women. She did briefly return to teaching kindergarten, in Moose Jaw; much later, in the 1980s and 1990s, she taught music theory during the winter to seniors at Maple Leaf Estates, Port Charlotte, Florida.
For most of her life she and her husband and three children lived in Winnipeg, where she became active in many community organizations as a board member, board chair, and president. Her volunteer work included the Children’s Home, Fort Garry Library, and Winnipeg Library. She became involved with the International Music Camp at the International Peace Garden when she enrolled her children there in 1957. The following year, sparked by her children’s enthusiasm for the camp, she enrolled in the band instruction program, and joined the board as a voting member in 1959.
In 1971, she was one of the original incorporators and directors of the Canadian Corporation of the International Music Camp and served as chairperson. Her service with the Manitoba Committee, a group of nine Canadians who, with nine Americans, operate the camp, continued tor 45 years. In 1986, she was awarded with the highest honour of the Camp, the Order of the Crossed Flags. She was recognized as a Woman of Distinction in 1984 by the Winnipeg YWCA/YMCA, and by the Mayor of Winnipeg for her service to the city. She enjoyed music and art, and was known for her strong sense of justice.
She died at Coquitlam, British Columbia on 6 April 2005 where she and her husband had made their home after leaving Winnipeg.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 11 April 2005.
“The International Music Camp: Model Band Camp from an Historical Perspective,” Jennifer Loie Pray Hall; dissertation, University of Oklahoma Graduate College, 2000.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 9 March 2022
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