Molson, Doris Amelia (Carington Smith)

Doris Amelia Carington Smith 1902 - 1975

Born in York (Toronto) on October 15, 1902, Doris was the first of three children whose parents were Charles Carington Smith (a Quebec City banker and first generation Canadian in a family from Hertfordshire) and Aileen Dawson. Aileen’s father, the renowned McGill scientist George Dudley Dawson, also had connections to Tadoussac in its earliest days as a summer resort.
Doris was raised in a sprawling Victorian house built at the top of Montmorency Falls. She had a younger brother Noel, and a younger sister May. As a girl, Doris took up figure skating, swimming, and golfing, and pursued these sports into her adulthood.
The family spent their summers in Tadoussac. She was 20 years old when she was invited to a debutante party held on board the H.M.S. Hood, a military ship anchored in the St. Lawrence River at Quebec in August of 1924. There she met another of the guests, Colin John Grasset “Jack” Molson, age 21. They fell in love and were married two years later.
Their son Robin was born in 1929 and their daughter Verity in 1932. Doris was small and spirited, bright and energetic, devoted to her family and her friends. She always had a much-adored dog whom she would train to do extraordinary tricks. Doris was especially known for her warmth and sociability, her concern for others, and her love for Tadoussac. Here, in the 1950s, she hosted bread-making parties where bread would be baked in their iconic outdoor clay oven, and in the 1960s and early 70s, her cocktail parties were lively occasions.
Early every morning, weather permitting, she would go down to the beach for a bracing swim in the bay. Later she would rouse up friends and neighbours for picnics, or Sunday evening bonfires on Indian Rock. She was also a mainstay of the Tadoussac Protestant Chapel, where, when she wasn’t playing the organ herself, she sat as close to the organist as possible so that her singing voice would give encouragement to the player.
Her faith was strong. Had Doris been able to choose the manner of her passing, she may have well chosen to go the way she did. On July 14, 1975, she was enjoying a game of golf at the Tadoussac Golf Club with her best friends when she began to feel dizzy. She sat down; her heart failed; her friends gathered around her. She was 72.


Karen Molson