March 9, 1930 - February 16, 2022
Wendy Knight, born Jean Walpole McClure, loving wife, mother, sister, professor, actress, dancer and friend, passed away in Westminster, Colorado on February 16, 2022 at the age of 91.
Wendy was born March 9, 1930, in Glasgow, Scotland to parents Hugh McClure and Jean Fairley McIntosh. She was raised in Glasgow, and attended Lowther College in North Wales. At the age of 16, she began dancing-a passion that became the foundation of her professional career. She was a professionally trained Dancer, Choreographer and Actress performing in multiple stage productions, television and cinema in London, Glasgow, and throughout Europe from 1948 to 1973, including The Punch Review (1955), Theatre Night (1957), The Borderers (1968) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). She was the head of the musical theater program at the Guildford School of Drama in Surrey, England from 1973 to 1975.
Wendy met American actor David Knight (1928-2020), and the two were married November 25, 1963. The couple had two children, Eugene and Moyra, while living in London.
The family moved to Winnipeg, Canada in 1975 during the economic downturn in the United Kingdom where Wendy began guest lecturing at the University of Winnipeg. One year later, Wendy and David moved to Urbana, Illinois and in 1977 she was named the Head of Musical Theatre in the Professional Acting Program at the University of Illinois. Together with her husband, she directed more than 25 student-run productions and was co-founder with her husband of the summer Illinois Repertory Theatre program at Krannert Center. In 1984, she devised and directed a revue based on the work of Noel Coward called Red Peppers Plus. The production was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center as part of the American College Theatre Festival. She was named Full Professor in 1985 and held visiting lecturer positions at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Tufts University in Boston. She also guest directed at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder.
After retirement in 1987, David and Wendy moved to Westminster, Colorado where they continued to support the arts, traveled extensively and guest taught occasionally. Deeply connected to their faith, they were members of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Denver, as well as the First Presbyterian Church in Boulder.
She is survived by her children, Eugene Knight (wife Chutima) and Moyra Knight (husband Michael MacLean), grandchildren Ewan and Annabelle MacLean; Jupiter, Joseph and Jasper Knight and sister Isobel Holden (Surrey, England).
Services will be held March 1, 2022 at the Rundus Funeral Home & Crematory, 1998 W. 10th Avenue in Broomfield, Colorado. A visitation will be held from 2:00pm-4:00pm, followed by a celebration of life service from 4:00pm-5:00pm and reception from 5:00 pm-7:00pm. Live streaming is available.
For those wishing to remember Wendy, please consider a contribution to Trinity United Methodist Church in Denver: https://trinityumc.org/give/
