When Victoria native Lorna Pollock was growing up in the 1930s, her mother Bernice was a great one for bowling and took the little girl along to the lanes.

The bowling shoe fit: Pollock grew up to be "one of B.C.'s greatest female tenpinners of all time," according to the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.

While raising four kids and working for 25 years behind the scenes at Uplands Golf Course, Pollock bowled for Canada as far away as Panama and Puerto Rico, setting a record for a high single game in 1969 and continuing to bowl for her country into the 1980s.

Pollock, a grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of two, died last month at age 79 of emphysema. She had stopped bowling a few years earlier, saddened by the closure of Mayfair Lanes.

"Bowling sort of faded away but she was in it when bowling was big," says Dave Unwin, archivist of the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame.

She was also a dedicated leader, serving as president of the Victoria Women's Bowling Association and the B.C. Women's Tenpin Bowling Association, as well as director on the Canadian Tenpin Federation. She's in the Canadian Tenpin Federation Hall of Fame.

"She had a very competitive nature [but] she was a very social bowler, too," says fellow national hall of famer Hazel McLeary, a bowling friend for decades. "She was very well-liked."

Pollock's fervour for bowling didn't interfere with her commitment to her four children's sporting events. She was a supportive, energetic parent who always managed to get to their games and practices.

She would bowl after 9 p.m., after all the kid things had been taken care of, says daughter Shari.

"She was the No. 1 cheerer. She always supported us in all our sports." But she didn't try to influence which games they played, says Shari, the only one of her four kids to show an interest in bowling. The house could have been full of bowling trophies, but Pollock preferred to keep all the name plates and donate the trophies to children's bowling programs.

For decades, Pollock's name made headlines: "Lorna Pollock cracks record;" "Lorna Pollock Sets Pin Mark;" "Lorna Attains New Peaks" and on and on.

She was the first Victoria woman to register three successive games scoring over 200.

"By 1969 Lorna was the B.C. women's champion and placed third at the Canadian championships," the Hall of Fame website notes. "She retained her B.C. title in 1970 and was named B.C.'s Tenpin Bowler of the Year for 1974-75 and again in 1977. This same year she was selected for Canada's team in the American zone championships in Panama and with her exceptional rolling, Canada won a silver medal."

In 1981, she made the national team for the American zone playoff, and her efforts helped Canada win the women's trio gold medal.

It's hard for husband Ken to pin down Pollock's passion for tenpin bowling. "It was a challenge for her," he says. And she was the type who rose to challenges.

The two met when playing on softball teams that happened to have a post-game drink at the same pub. He was in the navy; she was working for the province and holding down a second job in a theatre to keep her young son from her first marriage in day care -- seeing him only on weekends. The couple clicked and were married for 53 years. "She was my right arm," Ken says.

Edy Cockle met Pollock at Mayfair Lanes back in the 1960s. Even though Cockle had never bowled before, Pollock invited her to fill a vacancy in her team. They ended up as doubles partners.

Did Pollock ever feel guilty about being out bowling so much? "It wasn't in the vocabulary," Cockle says. "It was a night out and it was with friends. It was a wonderful sport.

"She was the best there was for a long time and she worked hard to do that," Cockle adds. "She was a very good friend, very loyal to the people she knew. She was just this wonderful, nice lady I'm going to miss."

kdedyna@tc.canwest.com

Lorna Ellen Bernice Pollock (née Latham) was born in Victoria on Aug. 2, 1930. She died at Victoria General Hospital on Oct. 16, 2009.

Island Lives is a weekly series celebrating the lives of Island people who have died recently. The series focuses not on the famous, but on our neighbours who have led interesting lives or made a difference in their communities. If you know of someone whose life should be celebrated, let us know by e-mail at features@tc.canwest.com or by mail at 2621 Douglas St., Victoria, B.C., V8T 4M2.