She left her architecture studies after her marriage to
Thomas J. Bata of
Bata Shoes and moved to
Toronto in 1946, befriending those in the architecture community –
Raymond Moriyama designed the
Bata Shoe Museum, while
John Cresswell Parkin designed the impressive
Don Mills headquarters of Bata Shoes and the family's country house in
Batawa. Though she had earlier envisioned herself to become a great architect, she set her designs on improving the Bata Shoe company. Also in the 1940s, she began collecting shoes and studying their history. In 1979, she endowed the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. The Bata Shoe Museum, established in 1995, is the world's largest shoe museum, and the core collection is attributed to Bata. She was the museum's chairperson. Bata was also the chair of the
National Design Council (1970s). She helped establish the
Toronto French School, served as director the
Art Gallery of Ontario, sat on the boards of
Alcan and Canada Trustco (now
TD Canada Trust), affiliated with the
World Wildlife Fund, and became an Honorary Captain in the RCN and sponsor of
HMCS Ottawa. She was appointed an
Officer of the Order of Canada in 1983. She died at her home in Toronto on 20 February 2018, outliving her husband for nine years. She was buried alongside him at
Mount Pleasant Cemetery. ==Personal life==