Marg Desroche, of the shoe store, passes

Jeff Green | Nov 09, 2022

Marg Desroche, who died two weeks ago, was known as an active member of the St. James Catholic Church congregation.

She was also a dedicated volunteer with Rural Frontenac Community Services, helping organise their foot-care clinic for many years, and for her efforts she was awarded 'volunteer of the year' on the agency's 30th anniversary.

In her home town of Sharbot Lake, she was involved in many other community organisations. She was also a volunteer at the Frontenac News for decades, proofreading and providing much needed moral support as the News went through changes over 3 decades.

But she will also be remembered as Marg from Marg's Shoe Store. The shoe store operated from the 1930's until 2010, and Marg only ran it for 20 years, but she put a stamp, and her name to the business.

She ran it out of her home for five years, and in 1972, Marg moved the store to the building across from the grocery store on Elizabeth Street. The building had originally been the Farmer's Bank, and was being used to house a restaurant until she bought it. It now houses the Sharbot Lake Pharmasave, but it was the home of Marg's Discount Shoe Store until 1986.

Reprinted below is an excerpt from an article published when the store closed for good in 2010, based on an interview with Marg Desroche at the time. It captures her no-nonsense practicality, and commitment to the needs of the local community, and her own family, that was the hallmark of everything she stood for.

‘Marg maintained a close relationship with the Brown Shoe Company, which had a factory in Perth for many years. She would pick up shoes that had been returned to the factory because of a variety of minor flaws. She would bring them back to her store, look them over and determine if she could fix them or if she needed to bring them to a repair shop in Kingston to be fixed, and eventually sell them as “used” shoes. She also sold seconds from the factory that she would repair or have repaired, as well as first line stock.

Marg's Shoe Store became known throughout a wide region for quality, inexpensive shoes. “People came from all over to buy shoes here, and I mean from all over,” said Marg Desroche when interviewed this week about the 20 years she spent running the shoe store. “We had one lady who would fly in every year or two from Hawaii. She would buy enough shoes to do her family. We also had people from the States who would write to us in the winter and order shoes that they would pick up in the summer.”

Marg says she got the most pleasure when a family “that did not have a lot of money would come in, and by jiggling prices a little bit we would arrange it so they would all get the shoes they needed. At that time some of the shoes were only $2. But the glow in the eyes of the little ones when they got the shoes is something I still remember.”

People would also pick up shoes or sandals or clogs on their travels as souvenirs and bring them to Marg as gifts. “I think I built up a collection of over 600 shoes that way,” she said.’