Lucile (Garner) Grant, June 13, 1910 - March 4, 2013 – In Memoriam. Air Canada will always cherish the memory of our first flight attendant, Lucile, who died peacefully in Oakville ON at age 102, earlier this month. After graduating from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal as a registered nurse in 1937, she applied to Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) to become our first stewardess, in 1938. With keen and unwavering enthusiasm, Lucile set about learning how things were done and pioneered our first training program from the ground up, hiring and training new stewardesses, and establishing our on board service. She even designed our first flight attendant uniform! We recently paid tribute to Lucile’s contributions to Air Canada, to her spirit and the people whose lives she touched, in the pages of Horizons(July/Aug 2010) when she celebrated her 100th birthday. She was also featured in our special 75th anniversary commemorative book (p45), published by Spafax/enRoute, which all employees received as a keepsake. Together with Lucile, Air Canada has celebrated its 25th, 50th and 75th anniversaries, a history and joint legacy that is also commemorated in “People, Places and Planes: Air Canada at 75,” a show that continues in Ottawa at The Canadian Aviation and Space Museum until next fall.
According to the Globe and Mail obituary published March 16, 2013, “Lucile always looked to the future with keen enthusiasm, and never looked back. She was cremated, and a celebration of her life will take place at the Oakville Golf Club, 1154 Sixth Line, Oakville, on Sunday June 9th at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Oakville Symphony Orchestra (oakvillesymphony.com [2]), the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (hcp.ca [3]) or a charity of choice.”