Jacqueline Desmarais

Early life

She was born Jacqueline Maranger in Sudbury, Ontario, to Ernest Marenger and Albertine Thanase, on September 20, 1928.

Career

According to Forbes, Desmarais had a net worth of $4.2 billion in January 2015.

She was a long-term supporter of music and opera in Canada, and head of the guild of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 1999. In 1997, she created a foundation in her name to support young opera singers.

Honours

• In 2011, Desmarais was awarded a Knight of the Legion of Honour from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called her "a great friend to France and a great lady of the arts".
• In 2011, she received an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal's faculty of music.
• In 2012, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
• In 2013, Desmarais was named an officer of the Order of Canada. In 2016, she was awarded a Companion of Quebec's Order of Arts and Letters.
• In 2016, Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital christened the Jacqueline Desmarais Pavilion.

Personal life

On September 8, 1953, at Notre-de-Dame-de-Grâce, Quebec, she wed the financier Paul Desmarais (1927-2013), also a native of Sudbury.

They had two sons: Paul Jr. and André (who is married to Canadian former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's daughter France) and two daughters, Sophie and Louise.

Jacqueline Desmarais lived on a 75-acre estate at Domaine Laforest à Sagard, Charlevoix, Quebec, until her death in 2018.

Death

Jacqueline Desmarais died on March 3, 2018, aged 89.