Kathleen Heron - May 2, 1953 – January 19, 2020
Kathleen joined Orangeville Chorus in 1993, after being ‘coaxed’ by Joan and Anne and in her words ‘she never looked back’. She was a member of the Tenor Section and loved it…the higher the note, the better!
Although hesitant when she joined, she quickly jumped in with both feet and was on the Board, was Treasurer, President, Costume Chair and always available to help wherever she was needed. She learned to wear make-up but never really liked it!!! She also sang in several quartets and always had fun.
But in spite of the make-up, she loved Contest and she loved ‘getting there’! For 10 years, she drove the intrepid travellers, Marion Morris, Joan Lockhart, Anne Richardson, Vera Bennet, Janice MacPherson, and until she moved to Kansas City, Louise McCann. The ‘road trips’ started out with champagne in the driveway, the exchange of crazy gifts and then off we went…stopping always in Fort Erie for lunch. Many laughs and great stories from those trips…including when they recreated Anne’s wedding party at a park in Fort Erie with a couple of gardeners who were on site working, and when Joanie stole an orange traffic cone from the parking lot at the duty free, and getting lost in Buffalo and circling the city several times before finding the freeway.
When we reached Syracuse, we liked to go to the Carousel Mall…most of us wanted to ride on the huge Merry Go Round…but Kathleen needed to shop for jeans for her VERY TALL SON!!!!
Kath was an extraordinary cook…date squares and homemade bread always showed up at our Pot Luck meals.
She could sew and knit and had one of those sewing machines that did everything but the dishes, so she had no trouble making and embroidering names on our ‘backstage bags’ for Contest.
She came to Orangeville with 3 young boys, met Chuck shortly thereafter, got married and had Emily…what a treat for her to have 3 big brothers!!!
She raised her kids as if it was effortless…you never heard her complain about the ‘terrible twos’ or the ‘teenage angst years’…she just rolled with the punches and they all turned out great!
She operated Kids Can Do Toy store in Orangeville for about 25 years with Chuck’s sister Suzanne, and she greeted all her customers with a big smile and lots of advice on what toys to purchase.
She enjoyed travelling…and a few memorable trips were: the Sweet Ad International Contests - in Orlando when her sons Eric and Dan became Anne’s ‘bodyguards’, to New Orleans in 1995 when Kath, Chuck, Anne, Jim and Steve Brown all roomed together and we called it ‘Camp Hyatt’!, a road trip to International in Indianapolis…Kath, Chuck, Jim and Anne…where we unfortunately encountered way too much road kill of deer…and stared naming them…’Dasher, Dancer, Prancer…etc.! And of course the Paris trip in 2003 where afterwards she kept saying ‘when are we going back?’ And one of the most memorable trips was the Alaskan Cruise in 2014 with Kath, Chuck, Anne, Jim, Marg and David. Kath and Chuck were celebrating their 25th Anniversary and Anne and Jim their 50th and a WHOLE LOT OF CELEBRATING was packed into that trip. Kath and Chuck won a dance contest on the ship for being the ‘most romantic’ because they sang to each other while dancing.
It was sad when she was no longer able to sing with the chorus due to the disease process that was ‘stealing’ her from us, but she became a loyal Associate Member and she continued to come out to rehearsals and cheer us on, taking part when able. We were so delighted to have her singing with the chorus at the Santa Claus Parade this past December.
We will miss her a lot. Her smile, her laugh will live on in our memories and her voice has now joined the Angel Choir. Sing on dear friend. She loved Winnie the Pooh and so a quote here seems like a perfect message from Kath: “If ever there comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever”. We got it Kath…You are in our hearts forever!!
