Obituary of Carlotta Leila Lemieux

Carlotta Lemieux (née: Hacker) – Apr 6, 1931 to Jun 22, 2024

Carlotta Hacker was born in England but was brought to Canada during World War II and went to school here. She later returned to Britain and graduated in history and English from St. Andrew’s University in Scotland.

Predeceased by her husband, Red (Hector) Joseph Lemieux; her mother, Carla Hacker (Lanyon); her father, Brigadier Edward Sidney Hacker; and her beloved younger brother, Arthur Hacker.  Also, a few of her dearest lifelong friends, Rhuna Martin, and Barney Morison.

Survived by her elder Brother, Bishop George Hacker (June); her stepdaughters, Andrea and Christine Lemieux; her stepsons, Mark (Nancy) and Owen (Janice) Lemieux; her surrogate daughter and dear friend, Amy McLaughlin; her nephew, Phillip Hacker/Lanyon; her niece, Erica Hacker (Lawrie); her goddaughters, Sophie and Vanora Bennett; and her cousins across the globe.

Cousins across the globe include: John Iffla, Caroline Romijn and Hugo Iffla – the three children of Carlotta’s dear ‘Auntie Toby’ (Leila Iffla, née Hacker, Carlotta’s father’s younger sister), all still children while Carlotta, as a young woman, was embarking on her inspirational worldwide travels and adventures. How fortunate they were to have a cousin who could share such stories, and who always shared such kindness and humour with them! They remember Carlotta dearly, where both John and Caroline were fortunate enough to visit her in Canada and see how happy she was there. These three cousins are thankful that Carlotta was able to prepare and circulate her memoirs, with assistance from Michael DiFabio and other Canadian friends.

Carlotta was close to her three cousins through her mother; all six cousins spent the war in Canada. She remained extremely close to Meg and she is missed greatly by Meg's children, Robert and Charles Tracy, who have lovely memories of time spent with her when she came to England. Charles' wife Jane enjoyed many long conversations with Carlotta about literature with strong representations of women; and they would share suggested reading at Christmas time. Their two children, Georgia and Romilly, were struck by the beauty of Carlotta's writing in her Memoirs; and amazed by her exploits – so she will continue to be an inspiration for the next but one generation.

A special mention to Carlotta’s very dear friends from her London tennis club (too many to list by name, where most of their cheerful faces have been included in the posted photos), and her cherished London-based book club – Dell Atlin, Mary Edgar, Zenaida (Zenny) Ravanera, and Pam Murray.

Carlotta wanted to be a writer from her earliest years, but it was not until she was in her thirties that she began to get published. Her first published work was a travel book describing the two years she had spent working her way around the world. On this trip she met the Canadian filmmaker Hector (Red) Joseph Lemieux, whom she later married. This led to more travels as they wandered the world together making films. It also resulted in the book Africa Take One about their adventures when making films in Africa.

Wherever they went, Carlotta wanted to know how each country and its people came to be the way they were. This meant finding out about their past – their history. She had always been fascinated by history, seeing it not as dates and politics but as stories about people. She couldn’t believe it when she heard people saying Canadian history was dull. “But it’s full of incredible people doing amazing things!” she would say.

She was delighted when she was asked to write biographies and histories for young Canadians. One of the books she enjoyed writing most was The Book of Canadians, which gave seven hundred brief biographies of famous Canadians. To make it appeal to young people, she included pirates, pop stars, and Olympic Games medalists (awarded the Children’s Book Centre Choice). The Kids Book of Canadian History was another favourite.  In total, Carlotta wrote more than 20 books, many of them for children.

Carlotta Hacker lived in London, Ontario, for several decades before she passed.  She was also a prolific editor, under her married name Carlotta Lemieux, and was Consulting and Contributing Editor of the The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada, writing some of the biographies and articles within. Carlotta’s unwavering objective: compel others to become interested, even fascinated by Canadian history (clearly targeting the youth of our promising country).

Carlotta’s bold, courageous, and fearless life is best depicted within her Memoirs – available for all to read, laugh, reminisce, and enjoy (to read Carlotta's Memoirs, please click this link).  She began this work in her ninetieth year (Oct 18, 2020) and completed her final edits by Feb, 2023 (two years and eight months of persistent effort).  Unlike Carlotta’s pencil markup on a printed manuscript throughout her years of editing with McGill Press (likely one of a few remaining editors permitted to markup a manuscript in this non-electronic method – maybe even the last), she drafted and edited her detailed and lengthy memoirs in Google Docs (with eternal thanks to the Westmount Gardens administrative team, permitting Carlotta to host her Mac Mini and monitor within one of the meeting rooms in the adjacent wing – where many residents and staff would see Carlotta wheeling her Bluetooth Macintosh keyboard and mouse within the storage basket of her walker to and from this nearby room).

We will celebrate Carlotta’s life on Saturday, October 5, at St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, 397 Springbank Dr., London, Ontario N6J 1G7 Canada, 11:00 AM EDT. The service will be live streamed and recorded – given Carlotta’s many family members and friends who are scattered across several continents of our earth.

Instead of flowers, please consider a donation, in Carlotta’s memory, to the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) – https://pwrdf.org/. The PWRDF is the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development and humanitarian relief. By engaging Anglicans across Canada, PWRDF supports projects to improve the wellbeing of community members and break the cycle of poverty with a focus on health, empowering women and girls, food security and climate change, and Indigenous programs. PWRDF responds to natural disasters and conflicts with humanitarian relief to support affected families and communities.

A note of special thanks to all of Carlotta’s family and friends fulfilling a Power of Attorney role (for Personal Care and/or Property) over the last decade – Andrea Lemieux, Mary Edgar, Dell Atlin, Anne Cribben, Louise Mauffette-Lenders, and Michael DiFabio. Also, to the many care team members of the Westmount Gardens Long Term Care and Horizon Place Senior Living residences. There are numerous heartwarming and caring members from these teams, meeting far more than the physical needs of their residents (some of them might well be angels).

Photos of family, friends, and places can be found by clicking this link.