Community activist.
Born on a farm near Dauphin on 24 August 1930, youngest of three daughters of widow Erzyna Maksymczuk, she moved to Sifton in the 1940s where she worked as a housekeeper for woolen products businessman Willard Spencer McPhedrain. When he was looking for a name under which to market his products, he used a shortened and Anglicized version of her name: Mary Maxim. The brand subsequently became famous around the world.
In the early 1950s, she moved to Winnipeg where she worked at the Royal Alexandra Hotel. In 1955, she married metalworker Richard Roberts (1930-1999) and they subsequently had two sons. After their sons were fully grown, she began to volunteer with Age and Opportunity, spending 30 years visiting seniors. She was a member of the Grey Street United Church for over 50 years and a member of the United Church Women for 25 years. She joined the Sisters of the Holy Rock in 1993 and became the “hugging nun”, touring with them for 20 years.
She died at the St. Boniface Hospital on 30 August 2025 and was buried beside her husband in the Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Willard McPhedrain Monument (Sifton, RM of Dauphin)
Canada 1931 census [Mary Maksymczuk], Ancestry.
Obituary [Richard Roberts], Winnipeg Free Press, 2 October 1999.
Obituary [Annie Woroniak], Winnipeg Free Press, 18 January 2007.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 3 September 2025.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 3 September 2025
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