Nancy Jean Kinney 1932-2023

Nancy Jean Kinney died peacefully at Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, NB in the early morning hours of October 14, 2023, following a very brief admission related to her chronic heart failure.

She lived her 91 years independently and, as health issues loomed recently, she let her family know her bags were packed and her travel plans in place. In keeping with her character, she slipped away quietly in her sleep, without bother to others.

Nancy was a Woodstock native, born to Russell and Isadora (Stokoe) McCloskey on January 13, 1932. She graduated from Woodstock High School in 1949. The following year she completed studies at Carleton County Vocational School and immediately went to work in the Woodstock business office of the New Brunswick Telephone Company.

She married her one true love, Budd Lee Kinney, on April 10, 1954, and thereafter devoted her life to family and community. Budd and Nancy welcomed sons Stephen, in 1955, and Stuart, in 1959.

The couple agreed upon a division of labor in their family life. Like many of their generation, Budd would be the breadwinner and Nancy would be the bread maker. She happily assumed a lifelong vocation as a homemaker, acquiring a mastery of the homemade staples of Carleton County cuisine, creating a tastefully decorated home that was always meticulously cleaned, and managing the household accounts with precision.

As her husband embarked on his career in business and public service, Nancy elevated hospitality to an art form, comfortably and graciously playing host to a wide array of business associates, provincial and federal politicians, and members of the numerous organizations in which Budd exercised leadership

St. James United Church of Canada, where she was a lifelong member, was the avenue through which she followed her own call to public service. She was a stalwart of the United Church Women, a group of like-minded friends serving the needs of the community, catering weddings, funeral receptions, and church suppers, filling the calendar with lively and entertaining social events.  It was through her service at St. James that she had the opportunity, in the early 1980s, for heartfelt participation in resettling refugees to Canada from Vietnam, welcoming several families displaced during the upheaval following that country's war, and maintaining regular contact with them in the ensuing years.

Nancy was a seamstress, fashioning not only clothing for herself and family but a variety of other household goods.  Drawing on the example of both her parents, she developed an elegant sense of fashion and style which she later shared with customers during her seasonal employment at Marich II in Bristol, NB.

As a hobby ceramist she created decorative items for family and friends. She found time to be a reader with eclectic tastes (including subjects as rarefied as North American wolves), an avidly competitive Bridge player, and until the very last years of her life, a tenacious solver of crossword puzzles.

She was quick-witted, and often uncensored in expressing strongly held opinions.  She kept a magnet on her refrigerator that said, "Sarcasm is just one more free service we offer." If you were on the receiving end of a pointed remark, it often confirmed that you were an insider in her world, and it never altered her personal affection.

In 1965, she and Budd acquired a small acreage on the outskirts of Woodstock which became the family seat, as it remains today.  It was there that owning, raising, and exhibiting Arabian horses became a family affair starting in 1968. Nancy was the very definition of "horse show mother." She sewed equestrian attire, served as secretary at local horse shows, and could challenge officials on the interpretation of rules and regulations applying to the sport.

When the extended family gathered during the summer to bring in the annual hay crop, she was occasionally conscripted to drive the tractor although greatly preferred to keep the fresh lemonade flowing, slaking the thirsts of the hard-working crew. On a few occasions, she was known to exercise the varmint control necessary to country life, wielding a small-caliber long gun in the manner she had been taught by her father decades earlier.

She was a devoted sister to Mary (Cox-Price) and formed a close and enduring bond with her daughters, their husbands, and families.  As her own mother, Isadora, and her mother-in-law, Violet Kinney, reached the late stages of their own lives, Nancy became their dedicated support worker, allowing both to live their lives independently to the end (a goal she set, and achieved, for herself as well).

She offered unwavering support to her sons as they pursued their careers, one as a horse trainer, the other as a lawyer, accepting the diversity of their interests, content to see them leading lives that gave them meaning and fulfillment.  Her heart was as open as her home to the partners they chose in life and her daughter-in-law Gloria became the daughter she never had.

She was delighted by the arrival of grandchildren and, in the years following her spouse's untimely death, she became an avid participant in their lives, proudly supporting their endeavors on basketball courts, theatre stages, and in charitable efforts.  Ever the host, she set a place at her table for them and their friends at her renowned weekday lunches. When, in turn, her grandsons welcomed their life mates, she adored those women too, these relationships putting the "frosting on the cake" in her years as "Nanny" to them all.

Nancy was predeceased by her husband Budd L. Kinney, who passed away in 1996; her parents Russell and Isadora McCloskey; a brother Richard McCloskey; a sister Joyce McCloskey (who died in infancy); nieces Nancy Lynn Cox and Bev Whiteway.

She is survived by her sons Stephen and Stuart (Gloria Yachyshen); grandsons Lee Kinney (Kristen Corey) and Ross Kinney (Katie Edney); her sister Mary Cox Price; nieces and nephew Barbara Magee, Brian McCloskey, Cathy Parker (Donald), Debra Daye (David), Martha Frenette (Jacques), Jennifer Cox (Lloyd Henderson), as well as numerous grand nieces and nephews.

Funeral arrangements are in the care of Scott Funeral Home & Crematorium.  There will be no visitation.  A funeral will be held Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at 1:30 PM at St. James United Church in Woodstock, with Rev. Ben Adeniyi officiating.  A reception will follow at the church. Interment will take place at Woodstock Rural Cemetery.

The funeral service will be live-streamed on the St. James United Church Facebook page (public) which can be accessed using the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/SJWoodstock/

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations in memory of Nancy to the General Fund at St. James United Church or to Diabetes Canada.

www.scottfh.com