It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Marjorie Louise Kushnir of Calgary, AB, on Monday, October 26, 2026, at the age of 92 years. She was a Past President of our CLCC league from 1994-95, 1995-96.
Marj was born to Kenneth and Gwennie Hayes in Innisfail, AB and raised on the family farm east of Bowden, AB. She graduated from Red Deer Composite High School in 1950 with a teacher’s certificate, and she began her teaching career at seventeen in a one-room schoolhouse in Little Red Deer, AB. Later, she moved to Calgary and spent 35 years as a junior high school teacher and guidance counsellor for the Calgary Board of Education. In 1976, while on sabbatical from the CBE, she obtained her BEd from the University of Calgary. She was an enthusiastic badminton coach at most of the schools where she taught, and she was passionate about preparing her young athletes to be competent, competitive players in city tournaments.
In 1953, Marj married William Kushnir. Their two children, Lori and Ken, were born in 1960 and 1961. Even though she was not of Ukrainian heritage, Marj became an active and enthusiastic member of the Calgary branch of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians at the urging of her father-in-law, John Kushnir. Lori and Ken enrolled in dance, Ukrainian language and mandolin lessons, while Bill and Marj sang in the Hopak Choir and participated in the leadership of the AUUC. Many, many hours of lessons, rehearsals, and concerts kept Marj and her family busy and their Ukrainian heritage alive.
While her life was, without a doubt, engrossing enough with raising her family, teaching full-time, and as much sport, social and community activity as she could fit in, she would likely tell you that she really started enjoying herself upon her retirement from teaching in 1988.
Right at the top of her list of retirement pleasures were her grandchildren: Mason, John, Ellie, and Kyle. They all came along in the nineties, and as they grew up, she would always play, talk, listen, entertain, babysit, constructively criticize, advise, and teach them. Grama was intensely involved in the lives of the Calgary Forte kids, but she was also often packing her bags for travel to Texas to enjoy the two Kushnir boys celebrating their special occasions, vacations, and milestones.
Marj loved to travel and enjoyed many ocean cruises, fitting them in between her other passions: curling, golf, choir, and bridge. The best trips were the ones where she was able to combine two retirement passions such as bridge cruises and golf trips to Thailand.
She was an avid curler, a sport she started at age fourteen and didn’t put the broom down until late in her seventies. In 1993, she was on the Senior Women’s team that won the Alberta Seniors’ Gold Medal, then went on to the Senior Canadian Championships, winning the bronze medal.
Retirement also allowed her to take up golf, that wonderful and maddening game. She played for 22 years at the Elks Club and mostly enjoyed it, only very occasionally slamming her club into the ground in frustration, always in the rough or near a tree where she’d landed. Although just an average golfer, Marj enjoyed playing in most of the tournaments at the club and around Alberta, because she definitely had a “competitive spirit.”
Duplicate bridge became another retirement passion, and she and her longtime partner Mary Hudson, dubbed the “M&M’s”, were well known in local bridge circles. Marj became a Silver Life Master in 2019. She learned to play duplicate bridge online, and she continued to play three times a week until late September of this year.
Marj’s last sixteen years were spent at the Manor Village of Garrison Woods. She was very engaged in many Manor activities, including the residents’ council and social committee. Marj especially loved the Village Voices Choir, an ensemble she managed and directed for ten years. In the last few years, she was a prolific member of the Writer’s Club at the Manor. She was very proud of seeing some of her stories and memories in print, and she presented her family with a huge keepsake book of her stories and essays just this past Thanksgiving. Last summer, as her health began to decline, she was also inspired to write most of this obituary and left her family very specific instructions for her memorial celebration and inurnment in the Bowden cemetery. (We have the frog, Mom, and it will go beside your blue urn in the family plot, we promise!)
Marj is survived by her two children, Lori Forte (Peter) of Calgary, AB, and Kenneth Kushnir (Mary) of Santa Fe, NM; the four best-ever grandchildren: Mason Kushnir (Sarah) of Arlington, VA, John Forte (Linnea Merrigan) of Victoria, BC, Eleanor Forte (Grant Breddy) of Calgary, AB, and Kyle Kushnir, of Albuquerque, NM. She is also survived by numerous nephews and nieces in Alberta and British Columbia.
She was predeceased by her parents, four siblings, Ernie, Clifford, Bill, and Lorna; and her husband, William Kushnir.
A Celebration of Marj’s Life will be held at the Manor Village of Garrison Woods (2400 Sorel Mews SW, Calgary, AB) on Saturday, December 12, 2026, at 3:30 p.m.
If friends so desire, memorial tributes in Marj’s name may be made to the F.E. Taylor Charitable Foundation Scholarship Fund of the P.E.O. Marj was a longtime sister of Chapter N, Calgary of the P.E.O., www.peoab-sk.ca.
Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared and viewed with Marjorie’s family here.
In living memory of Marjorie Kushnir, a tree will be planted in the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes. Additional memorial trees will be planted through Canadian conservation and reforestation initiatives, as a result of memorial contributions. McInnis & Holloway, Park Memorial, 5008 Elbow Drive SW, Calgary, AB T2S 2L5, Telephone: 403-243-8200.