From Dignity Memorial
With sadness we announce the peaceful passing of Walley Pearson Lightbody, age 90, on February 15 at Lions Gate Hospital. Walley was predeceased by his loving wife, Marietta, his sister Marlene (Peter Herald), and his son Peter (Brenda Lightbody). He is survived by his daughters, Cathy (Gordon Floe) and Sarah, and his son, Michael (Carmen Lane) and he will be dearly missed by his 8 grandchildren: Emma, James, Nelsen, Cynthia, Robin, Jessica, Kylee, and Sarah-Jo, as well as his niece and nephew, Tory and Michael Herald, and his many grand nieces and nephews.
Walley was born on April 14, 1934, to Frank and Vera Lightbody in Vancouver, BC. He grew up at 38th and Dunbar and recalls singing Irish ballads at the age of six, with his sister Marlene and his neighbourhood friend, Rawley, as the Teddy Lyons Sight-seeing Streetcar passed by, and the passengers would toss them coins.
At Lord Byng High School Walley began playing the saxophone, developed his lifelong passion for jazz, and wrote a jazz column called Blue Notes for the school newspaper. He also launched The Walley Lightbody Orchestra. Although when pressed by his children as to whether Walley understood what an orchestra actually was, he would pause and respond, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
Walley majored in English Literature at UBC, and established a jazz band called The Campus Coolsters. He then entered law school at UBC, but also found time, along with a coterie of musicians and artists including Ken Hole, Al Neil, Dave Quaren and his wife Ricky, and others --- to open The Cellar, Vancouver’s original underground jazz club, located at Main and Broadway. The Cellar was mainly a membership jam space for local musicians but also provided a venue for after hours jazz greats, performing mainly at The Cave, to gather after their show, and jam all night long with whomever. Walley was also a regular guest on Hot Air, the CBC radio jazz program.
While at UBC, Walley met Marietta Anderson from Kelowna, who was beautiful, smart, with “ruby red lips” and had a mysterious reputation for her amazing soup. After graduating law school, Walley articled with a firm in Victoria, while also managing a jazz club called The Scene, and Marietta visited regularly. He lived at the iconic Strathcona Hotel and that is where he proposed marriage. They married in 1960, had 4 children in 5 years, and moved to the waterfront of West Vancouver. There they cultivated long-lasting friendships with many families with whom they enjoyed boating, skiing at Whistler, and Sunday night dinners that featured roast beef and Marietta’s special Yorkshire pudding and gravy. As well, Walley created several short movies on Super 8 film that featured the neighbourhood kids, notably: The Monster of Seal Rocks, The Ghost of Gambier, The Treasure of Lighthouse Park, and The Sasquatch of Whistler Mountain.
During his career with Ray Wolf & Co. which eventually became Connell Lightbody, Walley handled several high-profile cases, including the 1975 BC Pen hostage taking when the social worker, Mary Steinhauser was accidentally shot and killed by a prison guard. In 2005 Walley defended beloved radio talk show host Rafe Mair in a defamation case. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Mair’s favour, dismissing the lawsuit, and expanding the fair comment defense. In Kelowna there was a precedent setting case establishing that jurisdiction over lake water is federal, not local and house boats have the legal right to be there. Walley was president of the BC Bar Association in 1984, and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1985. He was the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including the Georges A. Goyer Memorial award in 2010.
In 1995 Walley and Marietta moved into Marietta’s lakefront childhood home in Kelowna and built a tennis court on the property, which was nicknamed by tennis players the Church of Walley because Walley would play Ray Charles’ Oh What a Beautiful Morning every Sunday morning, at full volume, much to Marietta’s embarrassment, but to everyone else’s delight, (or so he claimed.) The two quickly became active on many fronts of the community, including tennis, Kelowna Heritage (FRAHCAS), and the Hospital Foundation, among others. Walley was the main organizer of an annual tennis tournament that lasted 17 years and raised nearly one million dollars for the Kelowna Hospital Foundation.
On that note, Walley has, over the years enjoyed organizing large social events and establishing traditions, most memorably, The Seal Rocks Yacht Club, a tongue in cheek ‘yacht club’ (no one had a yacht), that in its heyday featured a jazz band and continues to bring friends together to enjoy a day on the ocean. Also, there is the annual family Ping Pong Tournament in Kelowna that includes evening theatrical antics and an afternoon wine tasting contest. There is also the annual Canada Day party that continued for years at the house in Kelowna and was started by Marietta’s parents. Further, Walley was instrumental in the creation of the satirical Guile Debate at UBC which morphed into The Beguiled Debate as well as the similarly inspired Roger Watts Debate at UBCO.
Walley was an active supporter of the Federal Liberal Party, and he was outspoken on a range of political and environmental issues. He donated generously to several causes, particularly cancer research, and he established a foundation at UBCO that provides an annual scholarship for a student intending to study law.
Until recently, Walley’s many cherished friends would pop by daily to visit in the Kelowna kitchen area that has come to be known affectionately as ‘the black hole,’ the gathering point for many cozy meals and hands of kitchen bridge, with Plato the cat somewhere nearby. Several groups of tennis players have enjoyed Walley’s court regularly, most notably, TNT, Thursday Night Tennis, which has run for nearly 30 years.
From October until his recent passing Walley was back and forth between North Vancouver long term care, and The Lions Gate Hospital and was visited daily by family. These visits were special for all. In spite of some cognitive decline, Walley’s sense of humour remained sharp as ever and he kept visitors entertained with life memories and anecdotes, a favourite of which, took place when Walley, in his early 20’s spent a summer in the interior of BC working for the Geological Survey of Canada. Long story short, the cook burned down the camp and Walley was sent to get supplies on a horse called ‘Little Dick’, and when he rode back into the camp, he was mistaken for a notorious local known as ‘Blackwater Willy.’ Family and friends couldn’t get enough of the Blackwater Willy story, which only came in bits and pieces, laughter and sparkle, rarely forming a complete narrative --- this was its poetic beauty.
There will be a memorial service on April 26 at 2:00 at the Gleneagles Clubhouse at 6190 Marine Drive in West Vancouver and a remembrance gathering In Kelowna on June 21 at 2:00 at 2302 Abbott Street. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation in appreciation for the wonderful care Walley received there.
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