Kathryn Elizabeth Groom

She was born on May 24, 1939, to the late Mary and Arthur Copping in Vancouver, BC.

Kit spent her childhood in Kitsilano, roaming the neighbourhood with her friends Gail Pearce and Doreen Bogie, and at her beloved Auntie Flo’s seaside house at Roberts Creek, BC. A bout of polio led her parents to enrol her in ballet lessons to strengthen her legs. She had many fond memories of dancing with classmates Lynn Seymour (The Royal Ballet) and Maria Lewis (The National Ballet) at the Rosemary Deveson School of Dance in the penthouse atop Vancouver’s historic Hotel Georgia.

After attending a summer session at the Banff School of Fine Arts, she left Kitsilano High School at the age of 15 and moved to Winnipeg when Betty Farrally and Gweneth Lloyd, co-founders of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, offered her a contract with the company in 1954. During her summer breaks from the RWB, Kit studied at The American Ballet Theatre School and the Joffrey School in New York with the generous assistance of late philanthropist Kathleen Richardson of Winnipeg. She danced with the RWB for more than a decade where she performed in school gymnasiums, hockey arenas, and theatres across North America for many dignitaries including Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The highlight of her career was dancing the lead role in George Balanchine’s “Pas de Dix at the Boston Common with her favourite partner Jim Clouser.

Suffering from injury, Kit returned to Vancouver where she worked at Henry Birks & Sons Jewellers before marrying William “Bill” Groom in 1966. They moved to Coquitlam and soon welcomed their two children, Warren and Erin. Kit pursued motherhood with the same spirit she had for dance: nursing wounds with Ozonol and Band-aids, chauffeuring kids to soccer, lacrosse, and dance; sewing Halloween costumes; and baking oodles, as she would say, of “Best of Bridge” cookies and squares. Much to the dismay of her children and husband, she enrolled in French cookery lessons, enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, and served many dishes like escargot, braised oxtails, and ham in aspic for dinner. She was a stickler for proper etiquette. God help you if you licked a knife at the dinner table as she likely would have murdered you with the very same knife. Dinners were always an interesting affair in the Groom household.

She had a keen interest in sewing, took lessons with master seamstress Mary Chang and at the Emily Carr School of Art and Design where she learned to draft her own patterns, and made beautiful blouses and suits from the finest fabrics she sourced from the mills in East Vancouver and the fancy fabric stores on Granville Street.

When her children were in high school, she returned to Birks where she developed an expert knowledge of china, crystal, silver, and diamonds. She was a member of the Canadian Jewellers Institute and managed the diamond counter at Birks at Guilford Mall in Surrey. Kit had a loyal clientele who relied on her expertise and honesty when purchasing a fine piece of jewellery for a special occasion. Above all, she had impeccable taste.

Kit was also a fixture at the Blue Mountain Racquet Club and had a lifelong passion for tennis. For years she volunteered at Tennis BC where she helped organize the women’s league. One of her greatest pleasures was her regular tennis game with her friends Amy Yu, Leslie Roy, and Barb Chan. She was a staunch Roger Federer fan until the end and would roll her eyeballs imperiously if Rafael Nadal’s name was ever mentioned as a worthy comparison.

In retirement, Kit enjoyed the odd stiff martini, her many long-stay trips to Europe with her friends Lorraine and Trudy, gardening, quilting, knitting, attending the symphony and long phone conversations with her cousin Betty Scott.

Kit was predeceased by her husband Bill. She is survived by her brother Clayton Copping (Barb), her son Warren Groom (Sarah), her daughter Erin Steel (Doug), and her three grandchildren Wyatt, Stella, and David.

Instead of a service, she would be delighted if you had a very dry martini (with gin, of course!) and a few olives in her honour. Her ashes will be scattered at Roberts Creek at her request.

Donations can be made to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at 380 Graham Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 4K2 in her name.