Marie Denise Pelletier is a talented artist who sings, dances and has excelled on stage in the character of Stella Spotlight from the rock opera starmania.
She will always be grateful to the one who taught her to sing, the great lady, as she described her so well to me, Lucille Dumont, with whom she became friends for more than 40 years.
At home, her mother was stricter than at the summer camp at Lac Ayotte, because she always said that when the children were hungry, they would come home. The outdoors allowed him to regain his mental balance after his parents divorced.
You are from Montreal.
I was born in our house on rue Cartier in the Faubourg district in m’lasse. When I was almost two years old, we moved to 14th Avenue in Rosemont near Collège Jean-Eudes in Montreal.
Did your parents play an important role in your career?
Music was at the center of the family. My father had a voice like that of Luciano Pavarotti, while my mother was part of a choir for 25 years. By the way, the kids weren’t allowed to touch my father’s “records.”
Tell me about your house on 14th Avenue.
We were two adults and five children in a 4 1⁄2 which included two double living rooms. Several working-class immigrant families, including Poles, Irish, and Ukrainians, resided in my neighborhood.
At the age of 4, you took part in an amateur competition.
The lighting in the basement of the Saint-François-Solano church blinded me so much that I thought no one was there. Suddenly, I heard voices and that’s when I believed in myself as a singer.
Did you win the contest?
I performed a song by Jenny Rock and one by Michèle Richard. People liked my performance, but since Mom didn’t enter me in the competition, I was not eligible for the jury votes.
You gave shows with your friend Manon.
It’s so naughty when I think about it. We sold lemonade to people, which allowed them to attend our show.
The Rosemont Boys Club was located near you.
It was a training ground for young people where I spent many days and evenings skating on the recreation center rink. In the summer, it wasn’t complicated either, we played dodge ball in the alley.
You walked a lot in your first year of school.
I was six years old and I walked 5 km a day, that is to say to get to school, a round trip at lunchtime and once the classes were over, the return home.
You participated in a student strike.
I attended Stella-Maris girls’ high school which was located just behind the Center Paul-Sauvé in Montreal. During a strike day, the boys from Louis-Hébert school came to get us to support the movement.
The summer camp at Lac Ayotte in Sainte-Béatrix.
My brother studied with the priests, not to become a priest, but to be able to study, because our parents were not rich. He was a counselor at summer camp and we had been given special permission to camp there for free for ten years.
Your parents’ divorce was difficult.
My father drank a lot of alcohol. I was 12 when the elders of the family literally kicked my father out of the house. I resented men for a long time before realizing, after several therapy sessions, that my frustration was mainly due to my father’s behavior.
Your Expo 67 summer.
I was too young to work. The house had become a family perfumery which consisted of filling perfume bottles which were then sold on the Expo 67 site.
Your mother was a baseball fanatic.
My mother, a baseball fan, listened to Expos baseball with “her transistor radio” close to her. She also worked part-time as the manager of a snack bar in Jarry Park during Expos games.
Jacques Plante, of the Canadiens, was your first boss.
In the summer of 1976, Mom hired me as a cashier at her snack bar. My boss was retired Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante, whose wife, Raymonde, was the director of the concessions sector. He was so sweet, especially when he wasn’t scolding me for skipping school on some occasions.
What was your first car?
(A great burst of laughter) A used Dodge Dart that I drove to challenge drivers behind the wheel of their Corvette on boul. Metropolitan.
You liked to ride a motorcycle.
Times changed for the better, as I sat with both butts on the gas tank of the motorcycle and held my brother with my arms around his waist.
You hitchhiked a lot.
I was barely 14 years old, I took the bus to Joliette and then I hitchhiked to Lac Ayotte. My friend Julie and I used this same means of transportation to go to the Magdalen Islands for the first time, where I now own a marvelous house.
You were a receptionist for TAS messaging.
Before the arrival of the telephone answering machine, people used the TAS network to leave voice messages.
Your nephews and nieces are your children.
I had no children, however, my nephews, my nieces and their children, I love them as if they were my children. For many years, I have welcomed them all to my summer residence in the Magdalen Islands, my earthly paradise. Today, I consider myself lucky to share such beautiful moments of my life with my spouse, Normand.