Smith, Jean Alexandra (McCaig)

Jean Alexandra (McCaig) Smith 1903-1988

Jean, Mumsie, Aunt Jean, Grannie was born in Quebec in 1903. Her parents were John and Evelyn McCaig. She had 2 sisters, Ruth, born in 1908, and Ester, and one brother, William John, born in 1911.
The family moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1911. Jean trained as a stenographer and early in her adult life she developed a love of travel. During the 1920s and 1930s she visited Vancouver, Honolulu, San Francisco, Berkeley, South Hampton and Brazil and settled finally in New York in the early 1940s.
She was working as a stenographer in the Canadian Consul General/Trade Commissioner’s office when she met Robert Guy Carington Smith. They were married on December 12, 1945. For the next 20 years she travelled to, and lived in many of, the world’s capital cities and became a gracious hostess for Guy as he pursued his diplomatic career around the world. Upon Guy’s retirement in the early 1960s, they purchased a house in Brockville, Ontario and lived there until Jean’s death in 1988.
Summers were always spent in Tadoussac at Dufferin House. Jean and Guy became the Tadoussac version of Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman from Driving Miss Daisy! Guy had purchased a black London Taxi which he named Gertrude. He was often seen in the front seat driving around Tad with Jean in the back regally waving to us all!
Jean died in Brockville in February, 1988.

Written by various family members