Photo by Zoran Kokanovic on Unsplash.A long-standing and dedicated community advocate for several City of Burlington and Region of Halton organizations has died — J. Louise Hebb.
Being a founding member of Halton Women’s Place and helping to establish the organization’s first shelter in Milton was but one of Mrs. Hebb’s many community achievements that earned her the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 1977, a Burlington Citizen of the Year Award for 1979 and a Conservation Halton Award of Excellence in 2003.
Among her civic accomplishments, Mrs. Hebb was a member of, and later chaired, the Save the Lakeshore Association, which fought to protect the waterfront accessibility of Burlington’s lakeshore in the 1960s and 1970s. She also was the founding director and chair of the Halton Region Conservation Foundation, spearheaded a fundraising campaign for the development of the Iroquoian village and Interpretive Centre at Crawford Lake, was president of the federal PC riding association of Burlington, a Burlington Heart Fund volunteer, chair of the Halton Housing Authority, a Sunday school teacher at the Port Nelson United Church in Burlington, and became a licensed commissaire (official for competitive cycling) for the Ontario Cycling Association.
Mrs. Hebb and her husband of 58 years, Alan, moved their family to Burlington in 1966 where they raised their three children, Elizabeth, Derek and Cameron. Locally, she pursued a career in journalism after graduating from Oakville’s Sheridan College campus with Honours in Community Journalism. She worked as a journalist for the Burlington Gazette, a predecessor to the Burlington Post that ran from 1898-1986, and as a broadcaster on CING-FM Radio in Burlington. Prior to that, she worked as a Grades 1-7 teacher and a staff nurse in Nova Scotia, where she was born.
Mrs. Hebb passed away on Tuesday, March 19.
She is survived by her husband, children and 10 grandchildren. She was predeceased by sisters Mary and Nita, brothers Ted and Guy, and parents Maude and Donald Smith.
On behalf of my colleagues on council, I am sending my deepest condolences to Mrs. Hebb’s family and all those whose lives she touched during her many civic accomplishments and achievements, both here in Burlington and abroad. At City Hall, we lowered the flags to half-mast this week in her honour.
Mrs. Hebb will be greatly missed.
1 thought on “Statement from the Mayor on the passing of Community Advocate Louise Hebb”
Burlington has a lot to be thankful for because of Louise Hebb. She was an incredibly civic-minded human being, and her legacy lives on for all of us .