Margaret Rose (Hendy) Bannister

Margaret was born on May 12, 1926, in Kenora, Ontario. Her parents were John (Jack) Thomas Hendy and Winifred Victoria Allen, who immigrated to Canada from London in 1922. Margaret was raised with her older sister Ivy and younger brother Jack, near Lake of the Woods.

Growing up, she was an avid reader and excelled at school. She enjoyed boating on the lake, and long summer days with friends on Coney Island. She sang in the choir at school, and at the Presbyterian Church.

After graduating from high school, it was clear Margaret was good with numbers, so she immediately got a job at an accountant’s office on Main Street. Not long afterwards, she got a job she liked much better--doing bookkeeping at Lakeland Dairy.

Margaret dated Fred Bannister of Winnipeg. He was a Navy veteran, and a machinist at the Canadian National Railway. They married at the Kenora Presbyterian Church on July 3, 1948; honeymooned in British Columbia; immigrated to the U.S.; and settled in Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles.

Over the next four decades, Margaret and Fred moved several times to the outskirts of the L.A. area, where dairy farms and orange groves were making way for new suburbs. They raised three boys: Fred, Alan, and Tom. The family enjoyed boating, baseball, and car trips to national parks in the Western U.S. and Canada. Margaret managed the family finances, and she also worked as a bookkeeper.

In 1990, Margaret and Fred left California to retire in Sun City, Arizona; and spend summers in their cabin on Fish Hook Lake in Park Rapids, Minnesota--an easy drive to Kenora. They were blessed with a long and healthy retirement to travel, read, relax, watch their granddaughters grow, and immerse themselves in projects. They had their own hobbies, and some they pursued together, such as collecting, furniture restoration, and miniatures.

Margaret was an avid weaver and basket maker. She owned several looms, taught classes at the Sun City Weavers Guild, and managed the Guild store. Margaret was also a long-time member of the Sun City Presbyterian Church.

In 2022, Margaret moved to Scottsdale, where she lived first in her son Alan’s home, and thereafter in an assisted-living apartment. Throughout her life, even towards the end, she was kind, loving, caring, optimistic, and seldom ruffled by anything.

Margaret passed away peacefully on February 4, 2025. She was preceded by her husband Fred Bannister II, her sister Ivy Zilinski and brother-in-law John Zilinski, and her sister-in-law Jackie Hendy. She is survived by her brother John (Jack) Willam Hendy, her son Fred, her son Alan, her son Tom and daughter-in-law Lourene Miovski; her granddaughter Lacey Bannister and her husband Chris VanWart, her granddaughter Ashley and her husband Chad Choate; and her great-grandchildren Wesley and Camryn Choate.

Margaret’s remains will be interred with her husband’s at Kenora’s Lake of the Woods Cemetery. A memorial service will be held at that time.