Jill Warner was born Gillian Elizabeth Fearn in Plymouth, England on December 19, 1938 and lived a life of adventure and determination from her youngest years. When her father came home from serving in the RAF in World War II, Jill followed him around helping him repair anything and everything, putting her in good stead for life on a farm in Canada. Jill fondly remembered that, when she was about 9 years old, her family lived in a small town in south-west England on the edge of moors where there were many herds of wild and abandoned ponies. She would head to the moors at any opportunity to feed the ponies and find those willing to let her scramble onto their backs. Her mother was not pleased as Jill sometimes misjudged how “tame” the animals were, and she was thrown many times. In Jill’s own words: “that didn’t stop me!”
Jill’s paternal grandparents owned ships that sailed between Newfoundland and England and their stories of Canada intrigued Jill. Her grandparents were even booked to sail on the Titanic but one of them contracted the flu and they were disappointed to cancel their trip! After finishing her training to become an Occupational Therapist (OT), Jill landed a job with the Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board. With a sense of adventure, at the age of 20 she set sail and arrived in Edmonton. Jill fell in love with Canada. She also quickly fell in love with a man who, in her words “bowled” her over, and whom she hoped to marry. When Jill discovered this was not to be, she also found out she was expecting. In 1960 it was not readily accepted for a young single woman to be pregnant. Jill had heard about the beauty of the Yukon from her clients who worked in the north and, wanting to get away from Edmonton, drove to Whitehorse, Yukon. In February 1961, Jill gave birth to a daughter who she placed for adoption.
A few months later, Jill returned to Alberta and to her profession as an OT. With her creative intelligence, she quickly rose through the ranks to become a supervisor at the Calgary General Hospital and then a District Coordinator. After taking a two-year health care administration course, she became the assistant administrator of the Fanning Centre in Calgary. She bought a quarter section of land north of Cochrane and at one point had 36 horses and ponies. Jill took a few months off to show her animals and, deciding to make her hobby into her occupation, she opened the Cochrane Agri Center to sell tack, feed and small animal supplies.
One day in 1984 Jill was riding on farmland she was renting in Cochrane when she discovered a farmer driving his tractor on her land, setting out to disc the fields. Jill was irate and told the farmer to get off her land, while the farmer, Mark Warner, protested that the landlord had given him permission. Mark must have been impressed with Jill’s feistiness since he asked her to go on a date to the Calgary Stampede a few days later. Three years later, in July 1987, they were married. Jill set out to develop relationships with Mark’s four children from his previous marriage who were then in their 20’s and late teens: Beryl, Wayne, Eldon, and Golda.
With her administrative talent and skill in the health care field, it was not long until Jill was recruited to oversee the building of two extended care facilities for the Bethany Care Society. In 1989, Jill was asked to manage the life skills program for the Airdrie center, which was geared to adults with acquired brain injury, and she found this work especially meaningful. This was where she met a work colleague, Susan, a young woman who was a kindred spirit and who Jill considered a “surrogate daughter.” In 1995 Jill and Mark set out on a farming and cattle ranching career in High Prairie, which they continued for 23 years. During this time, Jill’s daughter, Sandra, found her and Jill started yet another adventure of getting to know the woman she had placed for adoption 45 years earlier. Sandra and her family visited from British Columbia and Sandra and Jill enjoyed telephone calls every Saturday morning for the last several years.
Jill and Mark retired from farming in 2018 and Mark soon fell ill and was eventually transferred to J.B. Woods extended care facility in High Prairie. With her typical determination, Jill bought a van adapted to transport wheelchairs and planned outings with Mark for picnics and visits to the farm. With the assistance of many selfless neighbours and care givers, Jill continued to live at their farm for years and joined Mark at J.B. Woods in 2023. Some of the staff referred to Jill as the “Meryl Streep” of J.B. Woods because of her sense of fashion and determination in advocating on behalf of the residents. Jill single-handedly raised the stock price for Amazon with her ongoing purchases of fashionable outfits, and she delighted in planning parties for her fellow residents.
Losing her husband of close to 37 years in June of 2024, Jill’s health began to falter in the following months until her death on July 2, 2025. Jill always expressed great gratitude for the kindness and respect shown to her by the staff members at J.B. Woods and the doctors and nurses at the High Prairie hospital.
Jill was also predeceased by her sister, Deirdre Willetts (Fearn), her stepson Eldon and son-in-law Dan Schellenberg. Jill is survived by: her two stepdaughters, Beryl (Mike) Larson and Golda Warner/ Schellenberg (Daryn), her stepson Wayne (Judy), and her daughter Sandra (Phil) Walters. She has 11 grandchildren: Wyatt, Cody and Charli Anne Larson; Cole, Brant and Meikel Schellenberg; Nola and Nova Warner, and Heather, Harrison, and Sarah Walters. She also has five great-grandchildren: Colton, Jaxton, Hudson, Jasper, and Tate.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday August 16, 2025, at 11:30AM at the High Prairie Legion Hall (4721 51St Ave). Friends and acquaintances are invited to join the family in sharing stories and memories of Jill. Following the celebration everyone is invited to stay for a luncheon of some of Jill's favourite dishes.
