Marianne was born and grew up in the town of Boehmisch-Leipa, north of Prague. In 1945 she and her family were displaced to Germany along with the rest of the German-speaking community in Bohemia. She studied to be a translator and lived in Manchester for two years before returning to Munich, where she met her future husband Hermann. The interests and activities they shared included fellowship at the Baptist Church, motorcycle riding in Munich, and ice dancing. In 1954 they emigrated to Canada and celebrated their marriage in Toronto on June 5. While raising her children Angela and Martin, she taught piano and music theory and completed her A.R.C.T. diploma in piano teaching at the Royal Conservatory. Generations of students will remember Mrs. Esterhammer’s lessons and her annual recitals held at Humberside Collegiate. Other interests included spending time with family at the summer cottage she and Hermann built in Muskoka, playing piano for church services, gardening, crossword puzzles, and playing Scrabble in English and German. Having retired from teaching at age 75, she discovered new interests in Nordic walking, e-mail, the internet, researching her family history, watching home renovation shows and her favourite program “Time to Sing,” and going out for coffee and pastries with her daughter-in-law Marita. She also took on three new piano students – her granddaughters Victoria, Julia, and Alissa. Travelling to Europe with her daughter and son-in-law John in 2013 and 2015, she was able to visit relatives in several parts of Germany, see the musical highlights of Vienna for the first time, and re-visit Leipa, the town of her childhood that she had not seen for 70 years.

Donations in Marianne's memory may be made to the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation of Toronto, or Bloor West Village Baptist Church.