Obituary of Doris Anna Whyte

Doris Anna Mortensen was born on July 7, 1933 to her parents Prudence and Harvey. Doris grew up on her father’s homestead land in Pontrilas, SK during the great depression. Her family worked hard to make ends meet. She learned the value of a dollar and the importance of hard work. Doris attended the one room schoolhouse in Pontrilas to grade 11 with her best friends Helen and Marjorie. Doris loved growing up in Pontrilas and had great memories of playing with the neighborhood kids and fishing at the river with her Dad and her friends. In grade 12 she attended Nipawin high school, working to pay her board while being away from home.

In October of 1950, at age 17, she married her sweetheart Donald Whyte. She and Don moved to his family farm to start their life together. After a few hard years farming, she decided that she should go to work. She always dreamed of being a teacher, so she went to UBC in Vancouver to take her teachers certificate. When she finished her schooling, she returned to the farm and started her teaching career in Aylsham.

In 1962, Doris & Don’s daughter Cynthia Dawn was born. Doris stayed home with Cindy until she started kindergarten. The family moved to Nipawin in 1967. Seeding and harvest found Doris driving back and forth from school to the farm to do meals, haul grain or help wherever needed.

Doris’s teaching career was mostly at Wagner Elementary in Nipawin teaching grade 1 and 2. Doris loved teaching. She worked hard to make sure her students learned to read and write and were ready to go on to the next grade level. Doris cared about each and every one of her students over the years. She was always thrilled when she met one of her students later in their life. She loved the staff she worked with and had so many fond memories of her time at Wagner. She always mentioned how lucky she was to have worked with such great people. Doris retired in 1989 after 24 years of teaching.

Doris was as busy in retirement as she was when working her full-time teaching job. She continued to work at the farm, grew a big garden – with lots of produce to share, and picked many buckets full of berries with her friends. She made time to help her daughter, and anyone else who needed a hand. She also made sure to include a lot of adventures - travelling with Don, her family and her good friend Shirley.

Doris was always busy and always had a project on the go. She always worried about how everyone else was doing. If someone needed a hand, she would be sure to help. She did so much for other people. She looked after other’s pets, picked up mail, dropped off cookies, weeded peoples’ gardens, visited the lonely, delivered meals on wheels, or any other thing that was needed to help someone out. She was a quiet giver, never looking for anything in return.

Doris loved God and her family. She loved her parents, her brothers and sister, her husband, her daughter, her grandchildren and her great grand children. She also loved animals, especially dogs.

Doris was predeceased by her parents Prudence and Harvey, her brothers Lowell, Melvin, Ralph and Jim, her sister Ellen, and her husband Don.

Doris leaves to grieve her loss her daughter Cindy and son-in-law Monte, grandchildren Jenn, Graham (Tanisha), and Jeffrey, and great grandchildren Mya and Foxanna. Doris also leaves behind her nieces, nephews, and her wonderful friends whom she cared a great deal for.