Gorda Darlene Seymour Obituary
Gorda Darlene Seymour passed away on October 30, 2025 at the age of 97.
A Saskatchewan farm girl-turned-public servant, a devout believer but also an iconoclast, Gorda's life reflected the expanding opportunities that were available to many Canadian women through much of the last century.
In the '30s, she drove herself and other children to school in a horse-drawn buggy during the tail end of the Depression. In the '40s, at age 17, she moved from the farm to Toronto, parlaying a certificate from the Comptometer School to her first job with Bell Canada. Then she worked for the Canada Life Assurance Company, the Wheat Pool, and the Saskatchewan Power Corp, buying herself a new grey Studebaker along the way.
She married Richard Claude Seymour in 1955, and they had three children over the next eight years. Her stay-at-home time ended when all three were in school, and her work life resumed in the '70s with a 20-year career in the federal civil service with Revenue Canada, Indian Affairs, and Parks Canada. This stage of her life was particularly inspirational to her daughters, who were so proud that their Mom was one of the trail-blazing working women of the early '70s.
Retiring in 1989, Gorda and Richard enjoyed a relaxing life of (some) bicycle riding, RVing, league bowling, travelling around North America and the U.K., and volunteering with Meals on Wheels. In 2005, they moved to Kelowna. After Richard's passing in 2008, Gorda was active with her church, enjoyed going to dinner theatre, walking near Munson's Pond, and making unsuccessful gambling trips to casinos in Washington State.
Gorda had a different community of friends at all stages of her varied life. She was a crossword and Scrabble fiend, pastimes that surely kept her mind sharp well into her mid-90s. Her Sudoku was erratic. Gorda's worldview could be contradictory. She embraced all vaccines and modern medicines but also warned her elderly friends that if Interior Health got their clutches on them, they'd be "goners". She enjoyed tracking the TSX and reading the paper but wasn't sure about the moon landing.
Unusually for a woman of her age, Gorda had only one grandchild. But she got to spend 13 years with Oliver, and he'll remember her forever.
Gorda was predeceased by her parents, Michael Herman Marzolf and Amye Matilda Julia Harstad, all eight of her siblings, and her daughter Karen Irene McNaughton (Corey). She is survived by her daughter Cathy Tait (Rob) and son Ron (Kathy) and grandson Ollie.
We'll bury her ashes in the spring in Saskatchewan, beside those of her husband and daughter.
