Muriel Manning

MANNING, Muriel Aileen (nee Preston) March 30, 1911 - April 21, 2006 Muriel Aileen Manning passed away on Friday, April 21, 2006, at the ripe age of 95 years. Muriel is survived by her youngest son Preston and daughter-in-law Sandra; five grandchildren, Andrea Manning-Kroon and her husband Howard, Avryll Fuller and her husband John, Mary Manning and her husband Matt Marks, Nathan, and David; eight great-grandchildren, Benjamin, Joshua, Samuel, and Daniel Kroon, and Emanuel, Abigail, William, and Isabel Fuller; and her nephew George Manning and niece Dr. Christine Manning both of Saskatoon. She was predeceased by her oldest son Keith and beloved husband Ernest Manning. Muriel Manning was born in Saskatoon on March 30, 1911, to Mary (nee Hutchison), a teacher, and William Preston, a gifted musician. When her mother became a single parent, teaching school to support herself and her daughter, five year old Muriel was placed first in a Catholic convent in Prince Albert and later in the Sacred Heart convent in Calgary. Although Muriel's memories of convent life included the pain of separation from her mother, she was eternally grateful to the sisters for introducing her to the marvellous world of music. In her early teens, when she left the convent to attend Crescent Heights High School in Calgary she was already an accomplished concert pianist. At Crescent Heights, she and her mother came into contact with William Aberhart, its renowned principal, who also taught a Bible class at Westbourne Baptist Church. They began attending the church and under the influence of Aberhart's teaching made a personal commitment to follow Christ. When William Aberhart founded the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute and began a pioneer work in Christian radio broadcasting, it was young Muriel Preston (then only 15) whom he recruited to play the piano for his radio ministry and public services. She continued her musical studies under the watchful eye of Annie Glen Broder, one of Calgary's musical icons, and at age 18 received her degree as a concert performer from the Royal Academy of London, England. She also became the Musical Director of Aberharts radio ministry, which eventually was transformed into Canada's National Bible Hour, and faithfully fulfilled that role for the next fifty years. In working for William Aberhart, she came to know Ernest Manning, a young man from Saskatchewan who had come to the Bible Institute to study and who became its first graduate and secretary. He became Aberhart's executive assistant and followed him into politics when Aberhart organized the Social Credit movement in the depths of the Great Depression. In 1935, Ernest Manning ran for the provincial legislature and at age, 27 became the youngest cabinet minister in Aberhart's new Social Credit Government. In 1937, Muriel and Ernest were married, a union which would last almost sixty years until Ernest's death in 1996. For forty-six of those years, they worked together as a political team, with Ernest succeeding Aberhart as Premier in 1943, serving in that position for twenty-five years, and then serving as a member of the Senate of Canada for another thirteen years from 1970 to 1983. Muriel also supported another politician, her youngest son Preston becoming the founder and leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2002, and Leader of the Official Opposition from 1997 to 2000. Muriel Manning's life experiences, which she willingly shared with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, included: working in a law office next to R. B. Bennett (later to become Prime Minister of Canada); doing "relief work" in the Great Depression and experiencing the suffering of that period first hand; organizing innumerable social and cultural activities as Alberta's "First Lady" while at the same time coping with the heartache and challenges of a child (her first son Keith) afflicted with cerebral palsy from birth; living on a dairy farm east of Edmonton which her husband continued to operate throughout most of his years in government; breaking a champagne bottle over the bow of an oil tanker to celebrate the growth of Alberta's burgeoning oil industry; accompanying her husband and representing Alberta at innumerable conferences and conventions; visiting every nook and cranny of Alberta as well as such diverse countries as Israel, Japan, and Australia; attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey; participating in the broadcasting of sacred music and religious instruction to hundreds of thousands of Canadians; and enjoying years of sunny retirement in Phoenix, Arizona. All in all a long and remarkable life - from a convent in northern Saskatchewan to the halls of the Alberta Legislature, the Canadian Parliament, and Buckingham Palace - but most important of all, a life committed to the service of God, her husband, and her family. A Celebration of the Life of Muriel Manning will be held at 2:30 p.m., on Thursday, April 27th, 2006, at First Alliance Church, (12345 - 40th St. SE), Calgary. (Exit off Deerfoot Trail taking Barlow Trail north, turning east onto 114th Ave. and then south on to 40th St.). Flowers are gratefully declined, but if friends so desire, donations in memory of Muriel Manning may be made to Alliance University College (630, 833 - 4th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB, T2P 3T5) for the purposes of establishing the Muriel Manning Memorial Music Studio at the University. Please forward condolences through www.mcinnisandholloway.com . In living memory of Ernest and Muriel Manning, trees will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McInnis & Holloway Funeral Homes, Crowfoot Chapel, 82 Crowfoot Circle N.W., Calgary. Telephone: (403) 241-0044