Yvonne Hall

Yvonne Marie Hall, aged 99, passed away peacefully on November 10, 2024 in Weyburn, SK. Born on October 18, 1925, in Marolles-en-Brie, France, to Marie Francoise Cotbreil and Paul Alfred Vigoureux, Yvonne immigrated to Canada with her parents and younger sister Paulette in 1930. They stayed with her mother’s sister Philomene Porte and uncle Jean-Claude after arriving in Canada, and later moved to a farm northwest of Gladmar, SK that her father homesteaded. She became a naturalized citizen of Canada on January 27, 1938.

She attended school at North Gladmar, and in November 1943 during World War II, driven by a sense of duty and patriotism, she enlisted with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. She took her training in Vermillion, AB, and then on to Prince Albert, SK for three months, spending the remaining service days in Regina until her discharge in July 1946 as a Sergeant.

In 1948, Yvonne met her husband, Wallace Daniel Hall (born June 7, 1916 to Wallace Edgar Hall and Anna Marie O’Connell). In 1949, they married on her 24th birthday at St Colette Catholic Church. The wedding went ahead despite a horrific snowstorm that day that produced snow drifts of four to five feet in parts, blocking roads and highways.

Yvonne and Wally settled on the Hall family farm, 20 miles southeast of Radville in the Neptune area, where they built a life together, raising their three children. Yvonne and Wally were also there for their three nieces whose parents had died when the girls were young. Yvonne always made delicious meals drawing on her mother’s French cooking traditions using fresh vegetables from her garden, though despite those French roots, Yvonne was always immensely proud to be a Saskatchewanian, speaking fondly of the province in which she lived any time she travelled.

Yvonne and Wally had an active social life, always hosting friends and neighbours, and passed this love of entertaining down to their children.

In the late 1970’s, Yvonne and Wally began spending their winters in Arizona, and in 1982 they became some of the very first snowbirds to settle at the Mesa Regal Resort where they spent quality time with old and new friends alike. They shared 43 years of loving marriage before Wally’s passing in 1993. And while Yvonne never remarried, she did continue wintering in Mesa for many more years.

In 2017, Yvonne moved from the farm into her own apartment in Weyburn, SK. At the age of 93 she impressed her grandchildren when she became the proud owner of an iPad, learning how to email, check Facebook, and Facetime video-call. Later, in the spring of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, she became the anchor of a weekly Facebook Messenger video call that took place every single Sunday for years with the women in her family. This new tradition brought her great joy, as it allowed her to stay in touch with her daughters, granddaughters, cousin, nieces, and daughter-in-law, despite their physical distance.

Yvonne lived independently in her apartment until shortly after her 98th birthday at which time she suffered a fractured hip. Post-surgery, she transitioned to Hill Top Manor in Weyburn for 24-hour care and quickly made many new friends there, who enriched her life with laughter and companionship.

Yvonne was often described as ‘sharp as a tack’, maintaining her cognitive health to the very end, and it is believed that Yvonne’s secret to such a long and well-lived life was her daily emphasis on social connection (and perhaps the occasional whiskey, glass of wine, golf game, and slot machine)!

In addition to her husband Wallace, Yvonne is preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Francoise Vigoureux; her brother, Andre Vigoureux; her daughter-in-law, Lynne Hall; and her son-in-law, Boyd Vilness and niece, Catherine DeAtley. She is survived by her daughter Diane Doucet (Gerald) of Kingston, ON, and their three children, Genevieve (Johnson), Lorenne (Sam), and Marc-Andre; her daughter Linda Vilness of Prince Albert, SK, and her three sons, Donald (Eileen), Trevor (Crystal), and William; and her son John Hall (Heather) of Radville SK, and his two children, Sarah and Adam. Yvonne also leaves behind eight great grandchildren, her sister, Paulette Bert, and her nieces Pat Davis (Tom) and Margaret Jones; several other nieces and nephews from the Bert, Hall and Doud families as well as many friends.

A Catholic Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Radville, Saskatchewan at a later date and the Interment will take place at Radville~Laurier Cemetery, Radville, Saskatchewan. The family kindly requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Yvonne’s memory to Stars Air Ambulance at 2640 Airport Road, Regina, Saskatchewan S4W 1A4.

Yvonne will be deeply missed, but her legacy will live on in the lives she touched and the hearts of those who loved her.