Jacqueline Desmarais

Jacqueline Desmarais, OC GOQ (September 20, 1928 – March 3, 2018) was a Canadian billionaire, and long-term supporter of music and opera.

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]