Wiles, Elisabeth (Billy)
Her family is grateful to have shared in the life of Elisabeth (Billy) Wiles, who died on August 19, in her one hundred and first year.
Billy was born Elisabeth Lilly in New York City on Christmas Eve, 1924, the only child of Olive (Grant) Lilly and Henry R. Lilly. She spent her early years in several locations in the eastern US, attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and moved on to work in New York City, and then to Boston. There she met her future husband, Don Wiles, who was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They were married in 1952, and over the next few years Don’s career took them to Oslo, Norway, then to Vancouver, and finally to Ottawa where they settled in 1959. By then they were a family of five, with their children Anne, Karen and Peter.
Billy loved adventure, especially travel. She and Don travelled through Europe during their years in Norway; they travelled abroad with the family in summers, and spent the year of Don’s sabbatical in Karlsruhe, Germany and travelled throughout Europe; after their children left home they visited many more countries. When Don got his private pilot’s licence Billy got hers too, and they flew their Cessna on many trips across North America and the Caribbean.
Billy’s intellectual energy led her to a long career as a tour guide at the newly opened Canada Science and Technology Museum, and later at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, where she introduced generations of students to the workings of technologies both new and historical. The next adventure was farming. Don and Billy bought a farm in Renfrew county, where they established a herd of Maine Anjou cattle, and also kept sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, horses and donkeys. Billy drove tractors, operated hay-bines and balers, stacked countless loads of hay, and put up miles of electric fence. They downsized to a farm in the Carp area, where they kept sheep and an assortment of ducks and chickens, and continued to hold their legendary annual lamb roast. Throughout these years Billy kept a large vegetable garden and hosted her children and growing number of grandchildren at weekly Sunday dinners.
She and Don retired to Almonte, where she was a member of the Almonte Horticultural Society. In their later years they were proud to be the first residents of Orchard View Gardens, where they made many friends and Billy enjoyed her flower garden.
Billy was predeceased by Don in 2022, after 70 years of marriage. She leaves her children, Anne, Karen (Mike Cleland) and Peter (Kristen Graham); grandchildren Kimberley (David Perreault), Heather (Steve Kang) and Ben (Stephanie Goodfellow) Cleland; Dan, Mark (Laura Shaddick) and Holly Mayson, and Alexandra Wiles; and eleven great-grandchildren.
The family is appreciative and immensely grateful for the loving care Billy received from all the staff at Orchard View Gardens.
A private celebration of life will be held at a later date. Friends who wish may make a donation in Billy’s memory to Home Hospice North Lanark.
Arrangements Entrusted Into The Care of
C.R. Gamble Funeral Home & Chapel Inc.
(127 Church St., Almonte, ON. 613-256-3313)
