Mona Irene (Creighton) MacKenzie

Mona Irene MacKenzie (Creighton) departed this earth on January 27th, 2023 rejoining her husband Murray to play the golf greens and fish the clear blue lakes in the heavens.

Mona was born on October 14th 1929, to Arthur and Sara Creighton in Edmonton. Here she developed her love of sport and the outdoors with her younger sister Del as they played and hiked along the Edmonton river valley and swam and paddled the many lakes they spent their summers at.

Mona was a natural athlete excelling in swimming, basketball, baseball and track and field.  During high school she won many medals for track and field which led to her being selected for the Canadian Olympic team trials in hurdles.  That same year, she had been accepted into nursing school at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, and she chose her career in nursing over athletic competition.

Upon completing her nursing training, Mona moved to Lacombe to work in the local hospital. It was here that she met her future husband Murray, who was playing hockey for the Lacombe Rockets at the time. Murray sustained “many injuries” so that he could visit the hospital ER where Mona was working.  They married in 1952 and moved to the family farm south of Lacombe shortly after.  Here they raised their three children Stephen (Betty), Laura (Andy)
and Maureen (Darcy). 

Mona loved to share her enjoyment of the arts and sport with others.  As a young girl, she studied with the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano, achieving the proficiency level to enable her to teach during her high school years.  She also was a swimming instructor at Borden Park in Edmonton and taught many children to ski at Medicine Lodge ski hill west of Lacombe.

Aside from her classical music training, Mona enjoyed many genres of music from jazz to rock, however her deepest enjoyment came from the Blues. For her 65th birthday she was surprised with tickets to a Buddy Guy concert in Edmonton.  She insisted on standing for the entire concert because she was not going to miss a single second of his performance! 

Mona adored and was immensely proud of her grandchildren Kathleen, Sarah (Trevor),
Genevieve (Shane), Scott (Meghan) and two great grandchildren Sareen and Augustus.  Her love for family was the greatest gift.

Mona will be dearly missed by her friends and family.  At her request no memorial will be held, however donations to the Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund may be made in her memory at Lacombe City Hall, 5432 56th Avenue, Lacombe T4L 1E9 online: https://www.lacombe.ca/522/Lacombe-Arts-Endowment-Fund

or by mail:

Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund
In Memory of Mona MacKenzie
c/o Red Deer and District Community Foundation
Suite 503, 4901 – 48 St.
Red Deer, Alberta
T4N 6M4
 

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