Jacqueline Desmarais

She was born Jacqueline Maranger in Sudbury, Ontario, to Ernest Marenger and Albertine Thanase, on September 20, 1928.[1][2]

According to Forbes, Desmarais had a net worth of $4.2 billion in January 2015.[3]

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.[2]

• 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".[2][4]
• In 2011, she received an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal's faculty of music.[5]
• In 2012, she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec.[6]
• In 2013, Desmarais was named an officer of the Order of Canada.[2] In 2016, she was awarded a Companion of Quebec's Order of Arts and Letters.[5]
• In 2016, Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital christened the Jacqueline Desmarais Pavilion.[5]

On September 8, 1953,[1] 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.[7]

Jacqueline Desmarais lived on a 75-acre estate at Domaine Laforest à Sagard, Charlevoix, Quebec, until her death in 2018.[3]

Jacqueline Desmarais died on March 3, 2018, aged 89.[5][2]