My goal was to have at least one name
for each day of the year! Believe it or not, it took 20 years. But hey, I
made it! Want to know who was born the same year as you?
Check out the
Famous
Canadian Women's Historical Timeline!
Want to find out about other Canadian women of achievement?
"On-The-Job". Has over 3100 mini profiles of Canadian Women
Use your mouse pointer to touch a
date on the calendar below
to see which Famous Canadian Woman has a birthday on
that date.
Barbara Kathleen Buckner.
Born June 1, 1927, Galt (now
Cambridge), Ontario.
Died October 17, 2011, Cambridge, Ontario. Barbara earned her
bachelor’s degree in Sciences from McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario in 1948. There were 8 women in her graduating
class. She continued her studies for her Master’s degree in
Virology, 1954. In the early years of her career she was often
the only woman at a conference table. She had a successful
career as a virologist and epidemiologist in Toronto and Ottawa
retiring from the Red Cross in 1992. She authored numerous
scientific papers in virology, hepatitis and radioimmunoassay.
Her achievements were recognized when she received the YWCA
Woman of Distinction Award in Science, 1998. She was an active
volunteer in the Canadian Hearing Society of Cambridge and also
served as an elder in her church for many years. Source: Lives lived: Barbara Kathleen
Buchner by Ruth Manchee Kenins. The Globe and Mail
December 20, 2011. Suggestion submitted by
June Coxon, Ottawa. (2020)
Alanis
Morissette.
Born
June 1, 1974, Ottawa, Ontario. Alanis shares her
birthday with her twin brother Wade. As a child
in Ottawa she liked to sing, dance, and act. She
took dance lessons at 7, began writing songs at
9, and played in a TV series on Canadian TV
called You Can’t Do That on Television at
11. She recorded her 1st demo in 1987. Her 1st
album is “Alanis” released only in Canada
in 1991 and she soon was top on the music charts
with her alternate rock music. She went
international with her album Jagged Little
Pill in 1995 before moving to Brentwood
California, U.S.A.From her tour with Jagged she
won the 1998 Grammy for Best Music video. The
following year she took Grammies as Best Rock
Song, and Best Female Rock Vocal for the
soundtrack for the movie City of Angels called Uninvited. That
year she released her forth successful album
which was #1 and the Billboard 200 in the 1st
week of sales and won a Juno Award for Best
Album. In 1999 she was acting again in the
comedy Dogma and appeared in some
television shows. In 2002 her fifth album was
releases again debuting #1 on the Billboard 200
chart and won Alanis the Juno Award for Producer
of the year. She also appeared in an off
Broadway play The Exonerated. In 2004
she was the host of the Juno Awards and in May
of that year her sixth album from which the
lead single, Everything, achieved major
success on Adult Top 40 radio in America .
Alanis also appeared in the movie De-Lovely.
In 2004 she became engaged to actor Ryan
Reynolds but by 2007 the couple mutually decided
to split. In 2005 she became a US Citizen
while in February 2005, she made a guest
appearance on the Canadian television show Degrassi:
The Next Generation and
released the greatest hits album. In 2009 she
appeared in eight episodes of the TV series Weeds On
May 22, 2010 Alanis married rapper Mario 'Souleye'
Treadway and the couple have a two children. In
2012 she did an European tour and announced her
eighth album. May
6, 2014 she received the UCLA Spring Sing's
George and Ira Gershwin Award. In January 2016
she began writing an advice column for The
Guardian. in the United Kingdom. 2018 saw
the release of album number 9 an in
May 2018, American Repertory Theatre in
Cambridge, Massacheutts, U.S.A., premiered Jagged
Little Pill, a musical with music by
Morissette and Glen Ballard, lyrics by
Morissette, book by Diablo Cody.
June 2
Florence Jane Bell.
Born June 2,
1910, Toronto, Ontario. Died July 1, 1998, Fort Myers, Florida,
U.S.A. Jane enjoyed sports. She was a competitive swimmer, and
earned the nickname 'Calamity Jane' from her teenaged days of
playing Lacrosse. She was a member in 1925 of the Toronto Ladies
relay team that traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
and tied the world record. Jane also set the first national
Canadian 50 yard hurdles record.Florence was a member
of the 1928 Canadian
Olympic team in Amsterdam, the first Olympic Games to allow
women to compete.
She participated in the women's 100
metre race and
was a member of the 4 X 100 metres relay that won the Gold medal
and set a world record along with team mates Fanny 'Bobbie'
Rosenfeld (1904-1969), Ethel Smith (1907-1979) and Myrtle Cook
(1902-1985).
Returning home, the four medal
winners were met in Toronto Union station by a crowd of 200,000
people.
In 1929 she was crowned Canadian champion in the 60 yard
hurdles, javelin throw, and baseball throw.She graduated from the physical education teacher
at the Margaret Eaton School of Physical Culture, Toronto in
1930 and taught physical education at he the Young Women's
Christian Association (Y W C A) in Guelph, Ontario. She married
and settled in the United States where she enjoyed curling and
golf. She was inducted into the
Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1949 and the Canadian Sports
Hall of Fame in 1955. When she dies she was the last survivor of
the 1928 Women's Olympic gold medal relay team. May 14, 2008 she
was inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame as a Veteran
Athlete. Sources: Olympic
Sports Hall of Fame; Guelph Sports Hall of Fame (accessed 2021)
June
Callwood.
Born
June 2, 1924, Chatham, Ontario. Died April 14,
2007. While still in high school June was
editor of the school paper, journalism was in
her blood. After
High school she worked at the Brantford
Expositor. She moved to Toronto in 1942 to
work at the Globe and Mail. After she
married Trent Frayne (1918-2012) she retained
her maiden name as the Globe and Mail did
not employ married women. After the birth of her
four children she returned to work as a
freelance journalist. She even interviewed
Elvis! She also ghost wrote several
autobiographies of prominent Americans. By
1954-55 was the host of The Fraynes, a
CBC television talk show. In the 1960's she
became an activist for such social causes as
homeless youth and drug addicts. June founded
Casey House, a Toronto hospice for people with
AIDS, and the June Callwood Centre for Young
Women. She continued in television journalism
with In Touch on CBC from 1974-1975. She
became a Member of
the Order of Canada in 1978 and became an
Officer in the Order 1986. June
also holds the Order of Ontario and was inducted
into the Etobicoke Hall of Fame in 1992. She was
named as Toronto's Humanist of the year in 2004
by the Humanist Association. In 2005 a Toronto
park was named in her honour and Victoria
College, part of the University of Toronto,
established a social justice professorship to
honour her. A biography, written by Anne Dublin
and entitled June Callwood: A Life of Action,
was published in March 2007. In 2008 the mayor
declared June 2 of each year is June Callwood
Day in the city of Toronto.
Carol Ann Shields.
Born
June 2, 1935, Oak Park Illinois, U.S.A. Died
July 16, 2003. Carol studied at Hanover College,
Indiana, U.S.A. spending her junior year abroad
at the University of Exeter in England on a
United Nations scholarship .In 1957 she married
engineer Donald Hugh Shields and the couple
immigrated to Canada. Living in Ottawa she
worked as an editorial assistant from 1968-1978.
In 1975 she earned from the University of
Ottawa. A writer and professor she was also
Chancellor at the University of Winnipeg,. where
the family had steeled in 1980 and where she had
been a professor. The busy mother of 5 children,
this writer won the National Book Critics Circle
Award, Governor General’s Award for Literature,
The Booker Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for
Fiction. Along with writing novels and
biographies, she has also written 5 plays and
written poetry. When her husband retired in 2000
the couple moved to Victoria, British Columbia.
Films based on her novels include the 1996 Swann and
in 2003 The Republic of Love.
June 3
Flora Isabel MacDonald.
Born
June 3, 1926, Sydney, Nova Scotia. Died July
26, 2015, Ottawa, Ontario. After having
worked several years behind the scenes of
the Progressive Conservative Party she was
elected Member of Parliament for Kingston
and the islands in 1972. In 1977
the National Film Board of Canada produced a
documentary showing her bid for the
progressive Conservative run for leadership
of the party in 1976. On June 4, 1979 she
was sworn in as a member of the Queen's
Privy Council of Canada. In
the Joe Clark Government 1979-1980 she
became the 1st woman to hold a major cabinet
post as Secretary of State for External
Affairs. The Iran
hostage crisis was
a major issue during MacDonald's term. Six
American diplomats had escaped the seizure
of the American embassy by radical Iranian
students and had sought refuge in the
Canadian embassy in Tehran.
MacDonald authorized the issuance of false
passports and money to the six as part of a
plan to rescue the escapees that had the
Americans pose as Canadians and leave the
country with Canadian staff when the embassy
was closed on January 28, 1980, although she
was not able to discuss her role publicly. The
successful operation became known as the Canadian
Caper, and
it was later dramatized in the Academy
Award-winning film Argo.
She would later serve in the Mulroney
Cabinet as Minister of Employment and
Immigration. In 1992 she was inducted as an
Officer into the Order of Canada and in
1998 she was promoted to Companion of the
Order. In 1995 she received the Order of
Ontario. In 2000 she received the Pearson
Medal of Peace. 2002 saw her awarded the
Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal. In
2004 she was awarded the Padma Shri civilian
award from the Government of India. In 2007
she was made a member of the Order of Nova
Scotia. After retiring from the political
forum she worked to help the people of
Afghanistan to help themselves by providing
simple training in the sues of solar energy
that the people provided for themselves. In
October 2010 she received the Canada World
Peace Award from the World Federalist
Movement-Canada. In 2012 she received the
Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal.
She received a Lifetime Achievement Award
from Maclean's Magazine. The
prominent 400 boat harbour in front of the
Kingston Ontario City Hall is named in her
honour. During her career she received 19
honourary degrees from various universities
in Canada and the United States
Sylvia Ostry.
née
Knelman. Born June 3, 1927, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Died May 7,
2020, Toronto, Ontario. She started her university studies at
McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, earning a BA, MA and
PhD. She has studied and worked with many other universities in
Canada, U.S.A. and England. She has had a strong three decade
career as a civil servant holding administrative and political
positions in various Canadian government departments, including
being Chief Statistician 1972-1975. She would be
the 1st woman to hold the rank of Deputy
Minister in the government of Canada February 18, 1976.
June 4
Sandra
Post.
Born
June 4, 1948, Oakville, Ontario. Sandra was
introduced to the sport of golf by her father
when she was just five year5s old. By the time
she was 13 she was competing in her home
province of Ontario as an outstanding junior and
amateur winning the Ontario and Canadian Junior
Girls Championships three times each. She
became Canada’s 1st woman professional golfer in
1968 and won the Ladies Professional Golf
Association (LPGA) Championship at Sutton
Massachusetts that same year. It can be no
surprise that she won Rookie of the year Award
in 1968. In 1970 she married John Elliot, Jr.
In 1974 she won the Colgate Far East Open in
Melbourne, Australia breaking into international
circuit. Sandra
was the 1st Canadian Ladies golfer to win the
LPGA multiple times in the same season winning
twice the 1st tow time a Canadian performed this
feat in 1978 and 1979. In
1979 she was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as
Canada’s Athlete of the Year. Sandra has bee
captain of the Canadian Nations Cup team, served
as a professional golf commentator in Canada and
she also writes instructional articles for her
sport in several Golfing magazines. She retired
from most LPGA competition in the mid 1980's due
to several nagging injuries. In 1988 she was
elected to the Canada Sports Hall of Fame and
the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. In 2004 Sandra
became a Member of the Order of Canada. She was
also identifies as number eight of the women
chosen as Canada's Athletes of the 20th Century.
Sandra runs her own School of Golf, she has her
own golf apparel firm, and she has designed a
set of women's golf clubs for a major company.
Helen Arlene Dahlstrom. née Underbakke. Born June 5, 1917, Regina Saskatchewan. Died July
25, 2013, Victoria, British Columbia. Helen married Alton
Dahlstrom and the couple had two children. It was however, her
love of music which she would best known for. She received her
piano teachers certificate from the Toronto Conservatory of
Music. In 1934 she received he Licentiate for Music Diploma at
the University of Saskatchewan. She actually started her piano
career at 16 when she played with the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
She toured, played on radio and accompanied notable musicians at
recitals. In 1950 she moved to Rossland, British Columbia and
began her lifetime work at St. Andrew’s United Church. She also
shared her leadership and management skills by holding numerous
positions of local, provincial, national and international music
organizations for 70 years. She was paramount in the
organization of Canada Music Week for which she chaired for 25
years. In 1998 she received the Order of British Columbia in
recognition of her contribution to the enrichment of the love of
music in the province.
Sources: Canadian Women of Note, Media Club of
Canada (Toronto: York University, 1994) # 189 page 208; Trail
History Society online (accessed August 2011)
Margaret
Hollingsworth.
Born
June 5, 1939, London, England. Margaret graduated
as a librarian from Loughborough College and
emigrated from England to Canada in 1968. She
studied psychology at Lakehead University,
Thunder Bay, Ontario, prior to moving to British
Columbia for post graduate studies. She is a
notable playwright. Five of her plays were
collected and published in 1985 in the book Willful
Acts. Her 1st play, Bushed, was
performed in 1973 by the Vancouver Playhouse
Theatre Company. In 1983 she won the Floyd S.
Chalmers Canadian Play Award for her work, Ever
Loving. In 1995 she received the Jessie
Richardson Theatre Award for Ring of Fire. She
published a collection of short stories in 1990
and in 2004 her novel, Be Quiet, was
published. (2018)
June 6
Anne-Claire Poirier.
Born June 6, 1932, St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. A film director and
producer, Anne-Claire joined the National
Film Board in 1960. Her efforts allowed female
film producers their first organized platform
for expression. In
1968 her documentary Film Du Mere en fille was
the 1st feature film ever directed by a
French-Canadian women. In
1996 her documentary film, Tu as Crie: Let me
go. was made to help her understand the
events leading to the murder of her daughter. In
2001, Poirier received a Governor General's
Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic
Achievement in film. She was appointed an
Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003.
Joy Nozomi Kogawa.
Born
June 6, 1935, Vancouver, British Columbia. After
the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941 the
Canadian government placed 1st generation
Japanese in internment camps. Joy's family was
sent to Slocan, British Columbia. After
World War ll the family settled in Coaldale,
Alberta. Joy graduated from the University of
Alberta, the Anglican Women's Training College
and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto,
Ontario. Back in Vancouver she married David
Kogawa in 1957. The couple divorced in 1968 and
Joy attended the University of Saskatchewan
before moving to Toronto in 1979. In 1973 this
busy single mother of two worked as a writer in
the Prime Minister's Office. Her 1st book of
poetry was published in 1968. In 1981 she
published her 1st novel Obasan and won
The First Novel Award. This book would later be
adapted as a 45 minute opera which toured
elementary schools in British Columbia. In 1982
she won the the Bork of the Year Award and an
American Book Award. Her 1st children's book Naomi's
Road appeared in 1985. She is known for her
novels, children's books, poetry and essays,
which have been published in Canada and in
Japan. She is also an activist who was
instrumental in influencing the Canadian
government in their settlement with Japanese
Canadians for loss of liberty and property in
Canada during World War ll. In 1986 she became a
member of the Order of Canada. November 5, 2005
the City of Vancouver declared Obasan Cherry
Tree Day and planted a graft of the Cherry tree
from the Kogawa home at the city hall. The
Kogawa house was saved from demolition and
is being renovated to its 1940 appearance. In
2006 she was inducted into the Order of British
Columbia where she lives some of the time. In
2010 she was honored with the Order of the
Rising Sun by Japan for her contribution to the
understanding and preservation of Japanese
Canadian history. In 2012-13 she was
Writer-in-Residence at the University of
Toronto.
June 7
Helen Elizabeth Ryan.
née Reynolds. Born June 7, 1860, Mount Forest,
Ontario. Died July 9, 1947, Victoria British Columbia. Helen ,
like so many ladies of her era attended Normal School (Teacher's
College) in Ottawa. Wanting more education she attended Queen’s
University in the second medical class that allowed women
students in 1881. Helen would have to withstand abuse from some
of the male students and faculty but she still graduated at the
top of her class in 1885. She opened her first practice in
Toronto where she struggled to become established and finally
joined her brother in Mt. Forrest. While struggling to
establish herself she met and then married Thomas John Ryan on
September 10, 1880. The couple settled in Sudbury, Ontario where
he would become elected mayor (1899 to 1901). The couple had five
children together. She was the first woman doctor to practice in
Northern Ontario.Together they raised a family of
five children while Helen had a successful medial practice. In
1907 the family relocated to British Columbia where Helen,
unable to practice medicine in the province, became active in
public life. She worked for women’s franchise joined the Local
Council of Women and was a charter member of the University
Women's Club.. (right to vote). She was the 1st woman member of the
Canadian Medical Association.Sources: Greater Sudbury 125
1883-2008 the story of our times (Bilingual); South Side
Story, January 2005. Additional information provided by
Queen’s University Archives ; The indomitable Lady Doctors
by Carlotta Hacker (Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1974) (2021)
Margaret Anchoretta Ormsby.
Born
June 7, 1909, Quesnel, British Columbia. Died
November 2, 1996, Vernon, British Columbia.
Margaret graduated from the University of
British Columbia in 1929 going on to earn her
Master of Arts in 1931. She earned her PhD from
Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in
1936. After teaching in the United States for
three years she became a lecturer at McMaster
University, Hamilton, Ontario in 1940. In 1943
she returned to teach history at the University
of British Columbia where she was head of the
History Department from 1965 to 1974. She served
as chair of the Historic Sites and Monuments
Board of Canada from 1960 through 1967.She
produced several works which enlighten readers
on the history of British Columbia. She was a
major contributor to the Dictionary of
Canadian Biography. She would also serve as
President of the Canadian Historical
Association. She is a member of the Royal
Society of Canada, a member of the Order of
British Columbia and the Order of Canada.
June 8
Monique Bosco. Born June 8, 1927,
Vienna, Austria. Died May 27, 2007, Montreal, Quebec. After
completing studies in France she arrived in Canada and settled
in Montreal in 1948. She worked at Radio Canada International
while completing her PhD at the Université de Montréal in 1953.
She worked as a journalist at La Press and Le Devoir
newspapers as well as being the literary critic for MacLean’s
Magazine. In 1961 she published her 1st novel Un amour
maladroit which won the ‘First Novel’ Award in the U.S.A. In
1962 she became a professor of French literature at Université
de Montréal. She published numerous novels, collections of
short stories and collected volumes of poetry all in her beloved
French language. In 1970 she earned the Governor’s General Award
for French Language in Fiction for La Femme de Loth. The book
was translated the following year into English under the title
Lots’ Wife. In 1992 she won the Prix-Grandbois for poetry and in
1996 she earned the Prix Athanase-David.
Cathy
Townsend.
Born
June 8, 1937, Campbellton, New Brunswick. While
living and working in Montreal, Quebec she took
up 10 pin bowling in 1963. By 1967 she was
representing Canada internationally. In 1968 she
was Montreal's sportswriters city female bowler
of the year. In 1974 she and her doubles partner
won the Federation Internationale des Quilleurs
(F I Q) Gold medal championship. In
1975 while she was Canadian 10-pin Champion she
was the 1st Canadian woman to win the A M F
Bowling Cup. During
her trip to these world games her equipment and
clothing were lost in transit and she had to
obtain a new bowling ball and special shoes
required for a left handed bowler! In 1976 she
too the gold medal-all events at the Tournament
of the Americas Miami, Florida, U.S.A. She is
a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
She is one of Canada's most decorated
international 10-pin bowlers.
June 9
Marie-Antoinette Papen.
née de Margerie. Born June 9
1907, Sainte-Anne-des-Chenes, Manitoba. Died April 8, 1989,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Marie-Antoinette began teaching in
Hoey, Saskatchewan in 1928. As was the custom of the era, she
quit teaching when she married Charles Papen in 1934. The couple
had three children. They moved to Belgium in 1937 where they
were stranded by World War ll (1939-1946) returning to
Saskatchewan in 1947. Marie-Antoinette returned to teaching near
Prud'Homme and then in Saskatoon in 1950. She became involved
with raising funds to help the French language radio stations in
the province. In November 1952 C F N S started up and she
hosted a daily program for women called Au fil de l'heure.
In 1961, after becoming a widow, she was a director of the radio
station and continued hosting her radio program until her
retirement in 1972. Source:
Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan online (accessed 2022)
Louise
Maheux-Forcier.
Born June 9, 1929, Montreal, Quebec. Died February 5,
2015. Louise studied music at the Conservatoire de musique et
d'art dramatique du Quebec and then from 52 to 1954 she studied
in Paris, France. In 1959 she began to concentrate on
writing. In 1963 her 1st novel was awarded the Prix du Cercle
du livre de France. She wrote of the then critical theme of
lesbianism. She continued to write novels and branched out to
short stories and scripts for films for TV. In 1974 she was
named writer-in-residence at the University of Ottawa. In 1985
she was named to the Royal Society of Canada and in 1986 she was
inducted into the Order of Canada.
(2018)
June 10
Winona Margaret Dixon.
née Flett.
Born June 10, 1884, South Dumfries Township, Ontario. Died May
16, 1922, Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 1912 she moved to Winnipeg,
Manitoba with her sister Lynn and her mother. It did not take
log before she was involved in the community and she joined the
Political Equity League in a desire to gain the right to vote
for women. She was a gifted and popular speaker at numerous
events in the coming years. In May 1914 she spoke up for reform
of the Factory Act in places where women and children worked. In
July 1914 she was working on the election campaign for liberal
Frederick John Dixon. In October 1914 Fred and Winona were
married. The couple had three children. They were also committed
pacifists and would condemn the future World War l conscription.
In August 1914 Winona was in charge of a petition signed by
39,584 women when a group of women present the petition to the
provincial legislature. In January 1916 Manitoba became the
1st province in Canada to grant women the right to vote. Winona
was one of eight women who were invited to be on the floor of
the legislature for the third and final reading of the bill! The
couple were arrested after the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
and charged with seditious conspiracy. By June 1920 she
campaigned in her husband’s election as labour candidate in the
provincial election.
Françoise Sullivan - Ewen.
née Sullivan. Born June 10, 1925, Montreal, Quebec
As a youth she studied classical dance but also
enjoyed classes in visual arts. In 1940 she
attended the Ecole des beaux-arts de Montreal.
This artist was part of the famous Automatists
group of Montreal. As well as her art, she
pursued a career in dance after studying in New
York City. In 1949 she married artist Paterson Ewen (1925-2002) .After her marriage in 1949 she
started a family and found it more difficult to
keep up her successful dance career. She
turned her artistic talents to welded metal
sculptures. She created a monumental sculpture
for Expo 67 in Montreal. Plexiglas was her next
medium of choice. By 1980 she returned to
expressing her artistic talents in her painting. Between
1982 to 1994 she produced several series of
works. In 1997 she completed Montagnes
(mountains), a granite wall located in the main
lobby of President Kennedy Pavilion of Université du
Quebec in Montreal. In 1997 she was teaching
painting at Concordia University. In 2001 she
was inducted into the order of Canada and the
following year she became a Knight in the
National Order of Quebec. In 2005 she earned the
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media
Arts.
June 11
Mary Leslie. Born
June 11, 1842, Leslie's Corners, Upper Canada
(Ontario). Died March 1, 1920, Toronto, Ontario.
Like many of the well to do
pre-Confederation families in Canada, she was
educated at home before her family sent her to
Europe to tour. She traveled with her mother as
her chaperone. While she was in Holland she
continued her studies in art. Returning home to
Guelph, Ontario, she taught art and began
writing. Her writings would be her legacy. She
would publish three books including The
Cromaboo Mail Carrier in 1878 under the pen
name of James Thomas Jones. This book was banned
in nearby Erin, Ontario because its
outspokenness offended some of the local
citizens. She would also use the pen name
J. T. J.The following year David
Jones's Locker appeared in serial form in
the Clifford Arrow which also published
in 1881, Absolutely Her Own Mistress. She
had hoped the Ontario Department of Education
would use her two volumes of poetry but this did
not happen. She also penned The Kings and
Queens of England in 1896 and Historical
Sketches of Scotland in 1905. Book sales
were not that successful as she lost her house
and moved to Rockwood to live with her sister.
After her sister's death she moved to Fergus,
Ontario and wintered in Toronto. Sadly she died in
poverty.
Grace Jean Sutherland Boggs.
Born June 11, 1922, Negritos, Peru. Died August 22, 2014,
Ottawa, Ontario. Born while he parents lived and worked in Peru
she grew up living in Cobourg, Ontario. She attended Alma
College in St Thomas, Ontario prior to attending the University
of Toronto for her BA. By 1953 she had earned her Master's and
PhD from Radcliff College (sometimes reported as having a PhD
from Harvard). She was one of the early women professors in fine
art. She taught at Mount Holyoke from 1948-1952 and the
University of California at Riverside from 1954 through 1962. In
1962 she worked a curator at the Art Gallery of Toronto. She
became the 1st woman appointed to full professorship at George
Washington University in St Louis in 1964. From 1976 through
1976 she served as the 1st woman and 5th directory of the
National Gallery of Canada. It was in the 1960’s that she
brought art to Canadians through informative radio broadcasts.
In 1973 she became an officer in the Order of Canada and in 1992
this was updated to the highest honor of Companion in the Order
of Canada. From 1982 through 1985 she served as the Cashir
and the Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Museums
Construction Corporation that choose the sites, the architects
and oversaw construction of the National Gallery of Canada and
the National Museum of Man (now Canadian Museum of History)
During her career she received 14 honorary degrees. From 1991
through 1993 she was senior advisor to the Andrew Mellon
Foundation. An artist in her own right she never felt herself
worthy as an artist. People who purchased her works promised
never to show the works. When she moved into a retirement home
she made sure that she had a view of the National Gallery.
Sources: Obituary, Toronto Star, September 6, 2014; Diane
Peters, ‘Visionary curator Jean Sutherland Boggs formed a
legacy’. The Globe and Mail, September 18, 2014.
June 12
Mabel Phoebe Peters.
Born June 12,
1861, Saint John, New Brunswick. Died August 30, 1914, Boston
Massauchetts, U.S.A. Growing up, Mabel, it seems helped to
operate her father's hotel, The Clifton House in Saint, John.
After the death of her mother in 1892 Mabel and her sister
Evelyn eventually became proprietors of the hotel in 1897. The
sisters often visited another sister in Detroit and learned of
here involvement with playgrounds in the Detroit area. In 1901
Mabel was the author of an paper that promoted vacation schools
and playground gaining support at the annual meeting of the
National Council of Women. She became convener of the new
National Council of Women committee on vacation schools and
supervised playgrounds, a position she maintained for 12 years.
Many local Councils of Women established playgrounds and moved
to set up playground associations. In 1906 Saint John had its
first playground. By 1912 a Saint John playground association
had formed with Mabel as president overseeing three playgrounds.
Mabel soon hit the road travelling to major centres like
Toronto, Hamilton, London, Walkerville (now Windsor) in Ontario
and Moncton, New Brunswick to encourage establishment of
playgrounds. She also lectured in the U.S.A. where she was an
early member in 1907 of the Playground Association of America.
Mabel also promoted women's suffrage. She was a member of the
Saint John Women's Enfranchisement Association and she even
spoke at the Washington D.C. National Suffrage Conference in
1902. In 1920 the National Council of Women called upon Canadian
cities with two or more playgrounds to name on of the
playgrounds in honour of Mabel Peters. In 2009 the Mabel Peters
Playground Saint John, was opened in her honour.
Source: D C B; Mabel Peters Playground, Saint
John, online (accessed 2022)
Camilla
Scott.
Born June
12, 1962, Toronto, Ontario. A childhood dream of
becoming a dancer helped propel this native
Torontonian to fame as an actor, singer and
noted talk show host. Her 1st lead role was in Evita at
the Limelight Dinner Theatre. She worked on soap
operas in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. then
returned home and kept busy acting in a variety
of guest spots on television shows and a couple
of movies. She also performed in musical theatre
in Toronto. From 1996-1998 she had her own TV
Talk show but it was cancelled after receiving a
poor critical reception. Her role in the TV hit
series Due South which ran from 1995
through 1999 was much more successful. In 2002
she married actor Paul Evans and that same year
she was the voice of Mamma Bear in the Berenstain
Bears. In 2008 she starred as Khashoggi, a
role usually played by a man in the Toronto
production of the Queen musical We
Will Rock You. As her acting career wound
down she took a position with Arbonne, a multi
lever marketing company becoming Executive
National Vice President.
June 13
Jean Adair.
Born
Violet McNaughton June 13, 1873, Hamilton,
Ontario. Died May 11, 1953, New York
City, New
York, U.S.A. Jean studied acting in Chicago,
Illinois, U.S.A. Most
of her life she was a stage actor traveling
with local stock companies and also
appearing on the vaudeville in one-act
plays. In 1922 she had a starring role in
the comedy hit, It's a Boy. She was
seldom out of work after this performance.
Later in life she appeared in numerous films
in the 1940’s working with such greats as
Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Perhaps she
is best remembered as one of the sweet, but
murderous aunts in the film Arsenic and
Old Lace in 1944. It was a role that she
had originated on Broadway. In the early 1950's she would appear
in some minor television roles.
(2018)
Jean Jay
Macpherson. Born
June 13, 1931. Died
March 21, 2012, Toronto, Ontario. When
Jay was 9 she was a ‘war guest’ in Newfoundland.
This was a term used for British evacuee
children who were sent from Britain for their
safety during World War ll. In 1944 the family
settled in Ottawa, Ontario. She earned her BA
from Carlton University, Ottawa in 1951. While
still a student at
Carleton she had some of her poems published in
the Canadian magazine Contemporary in
1949. After achieving her BA she went on to
University College in London for post Graduate
studies prior to earning her PhD from the
University of Toronto. She also earned a post
graduate Bachelor of Library Science. In 1952
her 1st published work Nineteen
Poems appeared. In 1954 Jay began her own
small press, Emblem Books. Her most popular
work, The Boatman, was a series of 80
poems published in 1957 garnered the 1958
Governor General’s Award for Poetry. From 1997
through 1996 Jay taught English at Victoria
College at the University of Toronto becoming a
full professor in 1974. Her works also earned
her the E. J. Prat Medal for poetry and the
Levinson. Source:
Jay Macpherson Poet and Teacher, Victoria
University Archives Online (accessed January
2012)
Barbara G.
Stymiest.
Born
June 13, 1956. Barbara graduated from Richard
Ivey School of Business in 1978. She became the
youngest partner in the accounting firm of
Ernst& Young when she was 30. The Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Ontario called her a
trailblazer for women in business. . This
businesswoman held the Senior Vice President and
Chief Executive Officer of Nesbit Burns Inc.
from 1992 to 1999. It
was during this time that she was the 1st woman
in North America to be Governor of a Stock
Exchange. In 1999 she
became President of the Toronto Stock Exchange!
In 2000 she was on the top 10 list of Canadian
businesswomen presented by the National
Post. She was named one of Fortune's 50
most powerful women in business three times. In
2010 she carried the Olympic torch in the relay
leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic
Games. She is married to James M. Kidd.
June 14
Rena
Maude 'Bird' McLean.
Born
June 14, 1879, Souris, Prince Edward Island.
Died June 27, 1918 at sea. Her nickname was
'Bird'. She graduated Halifax Ladies College in
1896 and then studied nursing at Newport
Hospital, Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. where
she completed her training in 1908. She was
hired as head nurse in charge of the operating
room at the Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital,
Gardner, Massacheutts, U.S.A. She enlisted for
service in World War l and was assigned to the
Canadian medical Corps in September 28,1914. A
month later she was serving in France. In 1915
she joined the Duchess of Connaught's Canadian
Red Cross Hospital in Taplow, England. After
transport duty to Canada in 1916 she she was
posted to Thessaloniki Greece and the No. 1
Canadian Stationary Hospital. By 1917 she was
serving in Orpington, London, England. In March
1918 she was posted tot he ship Llandovery
Castle which carried Canadian wounded to
Halifax, Nova Scotia. She died at sea off the
coast of Ireland when the ship was torpedoed and
sunk by the enemy while heading back to service.
14 nursing sisters died that day. Plaques
in memory of Rena McLean are located in St James
United Church in Souris, in Mount Allison’s
Memorial Library, and in the X-ray laboratory at
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown. The
FIVE SISTERS window in York Minister England, is
dedicated to the 3,000 women of the Empire who
sacrificed their lives in WW I. Her name is
included. The
Canadian Forces Medical Services School at
Canadian Forces Base Borden, Ont., gives the
Llandovery Castle Award each year to the most
deserving nursing officer.
Olga Alexandrova
Kulikovsky/Koulikovsky.
née Romanof. Born June 14, 1882, St. Petersburg, Russia. Died
November 24, 1960 Toronto, Ontario. Olga was a Grand Duchess of Russia and sister to
Czar Nicholas. As a child she was raised by an
English nanny. She 1st married in the simmer of
1901 to Duke Peter von Oldenbury but this
marriage ended in an annulment. She married a
second time in November 1916 to Colonel Nikkolai
Alexandrovitch Kulikovsky (1881-1958) and the
couple would have two children. She was saved
from being executed with the rest of the Russian
Royal family in during the Russian revolution in
1917 because she had decided to become a nurse
and was working with the wounded in Kiev. She
and her family narrowly escaped, 1st living in
exile in Denmark, England and finally in 1948
they immigrated to Canada. Here she was a
farmer's wife living near Guelph, Ontario,
leading a very ordinary life. The couple would
retire to Cooksville, Ontario. In June 1959 she
was invited for lunch with Queen Elizabeth ll
and Prince Philip. Olga lived simply wearing
cheap clothes and doing her own shopping and
gardening. She enjoyed painting and actually
had a showing in of her art works in Toronto,
in the 1950's. During her lifetime she painted
over 2,000 art works to provide extra income for
her family. in 2001 her son exhibited selections
of her work at the residence of the Russian
Ambassador in Washington, DC. and in 2006 in
Moscow.
June 15
Lola Lemire
Tostevin.
Born
June 15, 1937, Timmins, Ontario. Lola studied
comparative literature at the University of
Alberta, Calgary. This bilingual author has
produced books in both of Canada's official
languages. Her strong command of her second
language, English, can be seen in her poetic
publications. She has also translated several
notable authors who have written works in either
French or English for publication in the other
language. Her five books of poems and her three
novels express feelings of female life
experiences such as pregnancy and birth as well
as loss of immediate family members in death. Her
short fiction appeared in French in XYZ-La
Revue de la Nouvelle and in the anthology, Closets
of Time. She
was writer-in-residence at the University of
Western Ontario, London. She teaches creative
writing at York University, Toronto and is
contributing editor of Open Letter,
a
Canadian journal of writing and theory.
June 16
Sarah Margaret Armor
Robertson.
Born June
16, 1891, Montreal, Quebec. Died December 6, 1948,
Montreal, Quebec. This artist became a member of
a group of women painters of
Montreal who would study with the top Canadian
painters of the day. She joined the Beaver Hall
Hill group of artists and the Canadian Group of
Painters. She would be a colleague of the
members of the famous Group of Seven but her
approach to art was different and
individualistic. She was a landscape artist who
loved the Laurentians and the lower St. Lawrence
areas depicting convent spires, local farm
homes, water scapes, or old Martello Towers.
(2018)
Audrey Mildred Griffin-Kieran. née Griffin. Born June 16,
1902, Burgess Hill, Sussex, England. Died ???? Audrey held the
Canadian Pacific Northwest title in long distance swimming,
often beating male contenders and British Columbia’s women’s
champions. From 1915-1929 she would win 13 events as well as 27
wins at the Pacific Northwest Championships. She won the mixed
three mile Victoria swim nine times. She won the Dominion
Championship five times and placed 2nd three times. She married
John Russell Kieran. Audrey is a member of the British Columbia
Sports Hall of Fame and she was inducted into the Greater
Victoria (British Columbia) Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.Source: Bob Ferguson, Who’s Who in Canadian
Sport (Toronto: Prentice Hall 1977);
June 17
Anna Marion
Hilliard.
Born
June 17, 1902, Morrisburg, Ontario. Died July 15,
1958, Toronto, Ontario. Marion studied for her
Bachelor and Master degrees at the University of
Toronto. She completed her post graduate studied
in Great Britain and returned to Toronto to work
at Women's College Hospital in 1928. In 1947
this medical doctor helped develop a simplified
Pap test, which is used to detect cancer in
adult women. She specialized in a commonsense
approach to childbirth problems and authored a
book A Woman Doctor Looks at Love and Life in
1957. After her death a second book “Women
and Fatique” was published in 1960. In 1964
her biography, Give my Heart; the Dr. Marion
Hilliard Story by Marion O. Robinson was
published. (2018)
Geraldine Sherman.
Born
June 17, 1941, Chatham, Ontario. In 1962 she
graduated from McGill University, Montreal and
the following year she earned from the
University of Toronto a Graduate Diploma in
Town Planning. From 1963 to 1966 she worked as a
town planner out of Toronto, England and the
Ontario Department of Municipal Affairs. She is
married and has two children. From 1966 through
1988 she was the executive producer of the
programs: State of the Arts,The Arts
Report, and Identities and Ideas. As
a journalist and short story writer has had her
works published in Saturday Night magazine, Toronto
Life magazine and the Globe and Mail
and Ottawa Citizen newspapers. In 1992
she earned the Canada-Japan Literary prize from
the Canadian Department of External Affairs. She
1st had dreams about visiting Japan when she was
14. It took thirty years before her dream would
come true. She has written about her experience
in Japan Diaries: A Travel Memoir published
by McArthur & Co. in 1999. She has served on
several boards including PEN, Energy Probe and
the Ontario College of Art.
June 18
Ester Evelyn Sera Owen Bowen.
Born
June 18,1911. Died November 4, 1994, Wolfeville,
Nova Scotia. Evelyn left her native
Wales to go to theatre in London and later,
while working in a touring theatre, she would be
introduced to Canada. From 1928 through 1932 she
lived in London returning to Wales in 1936. In the early
1930's she married Robert Speaight and they had one son. From
1936 until 1956 she lived in Ireland. After her divorce she
married a second time in February 1939 to Michael O'Donovan. The
couple had three children and they became divorced in 1953. In
1956 she married Michael Garbary and the couple had two
children. She immigrated to Canada
in 1956 and found work in Montreal acting and
writing. but soon settled in Nova Scotia. In 1967 she was appointed
Artistic Advisor for the Nova Scotia Centennial
celebration. She
organized and directed the 1st all Negro drama
group in Canada. She
wrote plays, directed, and taught drama to the
youth of her chosen home province. To learn more
about this talented woman read Great Dames,
edited by Elspeth Cameron and Janice Dickin,
[Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1997].
Rose-Marie
Losier-Cool.
Born
June 18, 1937 Tracadie, New Brunswick. A teacher
by profession, she taught for 20 years at Ecole
secondaire Nepisiguit in Bathurst, New
Brunswick. She
was elected the 1st
woman president of the Association des
enseignantes et enseignants Francophones du
Nouveau-Brunswick in 1983 and
has sat on the board of directors of the Canadian
Teachers' Federation. She
was Teacher of the Year in New Brunswick in
1993. She entered into politics by serving on
several provincial and federal committees
including the New Brunswick Advisory Council on
the Status of Women. She was appointed to the
Senate of Canada March 21, 1995 retiring June
18, 2012. In
January 2004 she served as Government Whip, the
1st woman to hold this position.
Shirley Cheechoo.
(Stage name Cactus Rose).
Born June 18, 1952, Eastmain, Quebec. When she was just nine she was
sent away from her family to the Shinwauk
Residential School, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.
She is a Cree artist, actor, writer, director,
singer, and a producer who has been successful
in reaching back to her native roots for
inspiration. She attended classes at the Manitou
Arts Foundation during the summer of 1966. She
wrote about her experiences at residential
school in the 1991 play: Path with No
Moccasins. It was for her part of the
healing process for the trauma she endured at
the school. She has participated in several
exhibitions of her art work of acrylic, oils and
mixed medium on canvas and stained glass. Her
works have been used for Christmas cards by both
UNICEF and Amnesty International. She has
appeared in film, TV, radio and theater
productions with her 1st role in 1985 on CBC's
First Nations TV series Spirit Bay. In
1997 she had a role on CBC TV series The Rez. Shirley
is the 1st First Nations women to write,
produce, direct and act in
a feature length film from Canada. In
July 2015 she was appointed chancellor of Brock
University, the 1st woman and 1st aboriginal
chancellor for the institution. Shirley
and her partner Blake Debassige co-own Kasheese
Studios art
gallery. She is also the president of Spoken
Song film production company and founded the Weengushk
Film Institute on Manitoulin
Island that
will train, develop and guide independent
filmmakers
June 19
Helen Sau-Lan Chan.
Born June 19, 1947.
Helen graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 1971. Dr.
Chan had a general practice in Hong Kong prior to immigrating to
Canada in the mid 1970's. This physician has been a main
stay as paediatric oncologist at the Hospital for Sick Children
in Toronto from 1979. She also serves as a professor of
paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She is renowned
internationally for her treatment of retinoblastoma, a rare eye
cancer. Because of her research more than 90% of diagnosed
children can be cured with chemotherapy. In 2018 she was
inducted into the Order of Ontario.
(2018)
Renée Elaine Elio.
Born June 19,1955. A graduate of Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. She
earned her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in 1981. She is
an Associate professor of Computing Science at
the University of Alberta. She has authored and
co-authored numerous articles in the fields of
cognitive psychology, cognitive science and
artificial intelligence. She is a member of the
Canadian Society of Computational Studies
Intelligence. Sources: Canadian
Who's Who (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1997)
Anna Van Der Kamp.
Born
June 19, 1972, Abbotsford, British Columbia. This athlete competed for Canada in the 1996
Atlanta Olympic Games in rowing where she earned
a silver medal. She gained prominence in her
sport in 1993 when she was Female Crew of the
Year. She works for the Privy Council Office in
Ottawa. She is a member of Clean Air Champions
(C A C) a national charity committed to educating
Canadians on the importance of air quality and
its connections to health. The CAC ambassadors
are Olympic, Paralympic and National Team
athletes from across Canada.
(2018)
June 20
Elizabeth Pauline MacCallum. Born
Jun 30, 1895, Marash, Turkey. Died June 12,
1985. Elizabeth’s parents were Canadian
Presbyterian missionaries serving in Turkey. The
family returned to Canada when Elizabeth was a
teenager. After high school she attended Normal
School (Teacher’s College) in Calgary and from
1915-1917 she worked teaching at prairie schools
before enrolling at Queen’s University,
Kingston, Ontario. By 1919 she had earned her
Master’s Degree. She attend Columbia University
in New York City, New York, U.S.A. From 1925
through 1931 she worked at New York’s Foreign
Policy Association researching and writing
reports and monographs on the Middle East. In
1931 she retreated to a 2 acre market garden in
Uxbridge, Ontario to recharge her batteries and
to give herself some relief for the intensity of
concentration requiring the wearing of hearing
aids. In 1935 she wrote the book Rivalries in
Ethiopia and also gave radio talks on the
subject of the MiddleEast.
By 1936 she was back in Ottawa working for the
League of Nations and later at the Canadian
Legion’s Educational Department. In 1942 she
began her career at External Affairs Department,
still focusing on the Middle East, her work was
given the highest considerations. She proposed a
division of Palestine into 2 states – one
Jewish, one Arab which was sent up to Prime
Minister William Lion Mackenzie King. It was in
1947 that the United Nations General Assembly
adopted the partitioning of Palestine and 6
months later the State of Israel was formed. In
1947 the Canadian government ban against women
serving as foreign officers was lifted and
Elizabeth became the foreign officer ofthe unofficial Middle
East Division. Her deafness bothered her to the
extent that in 1956 she returned to Ottawa to
head the new Official Middle East Division. She
officially retired for health reasons in 1958
but returned, upon request, until June 30,
1960. Even then she occasionally worked through
to 1977. At 82 she was a volunteer at the Ottawa
Civic Hospital working with the hearing
impaired. In 1967 she received the Medal of
Service of the Order of Canada and later she
became an Officer of the Order of Canada. Sadly
she never got around to writing her memoirs.Source:
Margaret Weiers, Envoys Extraordinary: Women
of the Canadian Foreign Service (Toronto:
Dundurn, 1995)
Anne
Murray. Born
June 20, 1945, Springhill, Nova Scotia. She has sung her way
into the hearts of fans all over the world. She was
the 1st Canadian female solo singer to reach number 1 on the
music charts in the U.S.A. and the 1st woman to earn a Gold
record for her song, Snowbird in 1970. She
is also the 1st woman and 1st Canadian to win the Album of the
Year Award from the Country Music Association Awards in 1984.
In 1975 she married music producer Bill Langstroth (died 2013)
and the couple have two children. She has record sales of over
$25,000,000. She has won 4 Grammies and 32 Juno Awards. She has
a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, California,
U.S.A. and on Canada's Walk of Fame, Toronto, Ontario. All of
these things make her the most successful female recording
artist in the history of Canadian entertainment. She has been
inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters
Hall of Fame, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of fame as well as the
Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars, Nashville,
Tennessee, U.S.A. Companion of the Order of Canada. In May 2007
Golf for Women magazine named Anne the world's best female
celebrity golfer. June 29, 2007 Canada Post issued a Commutative
Anne Murray stamp. In 2008 she retired from singing saying that
she only sings for her grandchildren now. In 2008 she appeared
as a mentor for the TV programme Canadian Idol. In 2009 she
published her biography, All of Me. In 2010 she was one of the
eight notable Canadians to carry the Olympic Flag as the opening
ceremonies and was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In 2011 Billboard listed Anne as number 10 on their list of the
50 biggest adult contemporary artists. The Anne Murray Centre,
Springhill, Nova Scotia which opened July 28, 1989, houses her
memorabilia collection. Revenue generated from the Centre is
used to provide local employment. She is the Honorary National
Chairperson for the Canadian Save the Children Fund. In 2009
Colon Cancer Canada launched the Anne Murray Charity Gold
Classic. She has also been a public supporter for the
environment and David Suzuki's Nature Challenge.
(2023)
June 21
Mildred 'Millie' Sarah Maria Tremblay.
née Ratchford. Born
June 21,1925, Kenora, Ontario. Died October 29, 2014, Nanaimo,
British Columbia. Millie married Rosaire 'Ross' Tremblay (died
2010) in 1947..Ater her six daughters were raised she began to
think about writing. Although she has began writing short
stories in the 1950’s she eventually switched to poetry as she
felt she could not stay up all night writing! Her efforts in
poetry helped her open up a new worlds and that passion helped
her bridge into her senior years. Her stories were published
collectively in Dark Forms Gliding, and this was followed
with two books of poetry Old Woman Comes Out of Her Cave
and In 1970 the couple finally settled in Nanaimo, British
Columbia. In 1996 she earned the League of Canadian Poets Annual
Poetry Award and also ARC Magazine’s Poem of the year contest
award. In 2000 she was presented with the Stephan Leacock
Orillia Humour Award and in 2005 she won the Vancouver
International Writer’s Festival Award for her poetry.
Source; Obituary, Nanaimo New Bulletin. (2020)
Jeannette Vivian
Lavell.
née
Corbiere. Born June 21, 1942, Wikwemikong First
Nation, Ontario. Growing up she learned English
from her mother and Ojibwe from her father. She
attended business college in North Bay, Ontario
and worked for the Native Canadian Centre of
Toronto. In 1965 she was named Indian Princess
of Canada. Since in 1970 she married a
non-Indigenous mane, David Lavell she was no
longer considered to be an 'Indian' according to
the Canadian Indian
Act. Jeannette went on to become a person
dedicated to the causes of native women for more
than a quarter of a century. This courageous
women fought to improve their plight and proved
that one person's voice can make a difference.
In 1971 she challenged the Indian Act and her
failure fueled her energies to a 1974 successful
challenge which permitted reinstatement of First
Nations women and children to regain their
'Indian' status. She served as president of the
Native Women's Association of Canada and founded
the Ontario Native Women's Association. She also
served as a cabinet appointee for the Commission
on the Native Justice System and was president
of Anduhyaun Inc a residence for Native women in
Toronto. She
earned a teaching degree from the University of
Western Ontario, London and worked as as a
teacher and school proncipal, living on
Manitoulin Island, Ontario In 2009 to 2012 she became
president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. In 2009
she received the Governor General's Person's Case Award. In 2012
she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal. In
2018 she became a Member of the Order of Canada.
(2019)
June 22
Anna Gertrude Lawson
'Nan' Cheney.
Born June 22, 1897, Windsor, Nova Scotia. Died November 3,
1985, Vancouver, British Columbia. Evan as a child Nan had an
interest in art and the form of the human body. Nan studied art
at the Boston School of Fine Arts, Massacheutts, U.S.A. and at
the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec. She also studied
medical illustration at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Maryland, U.S.A. For a time she worked as a medical artist at
McGill University, Montreal. In 1924 she married Dr. Hill Cheney
(died 1949). The couple relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia
in 1937. Known for her landscape painting she would soon earn
her place as a portrait painter and go on to be the first
medical artist in British Columbia. A friend of Emily Carr
(1871-1945), the famous west coast artist, they were encouraging
one another well before Carr’s works became generally accepted
as the art treasures that they were. Nan's portrait of Emily
Carr is part of the collections of the National Gallery, Ottawa.
Sadly Nan stopped painting in 1950. Nan gathered information on
Emily until December 1979. Suggested reading: Dear Nan:
Letters of Emily Carr by Nan Cheney and Humphrey Toms.
Source: The History of Metropolitan Vancouver. (accessed
June 19, 2009) ; Obituary, The Vancouver Sun, November 7,
1985, online (accessed 2021)
Denyse Julien.
Born June 22, 1960, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. Denyse's
passion is badminton. She has been enthusiastic
about her sport since she was 12 years old. She
represented Canada on the Olympic team in 1992,
1996 and 2004. She was Badminton's Athlete of
the year in 1995. She won 3 gold medals in the
Pan American Games. She has held several
Canadian National title over the years but feels
her biggest accomplishment is still being
enthusiastic about her sport. Between
1981 and 2004 she won a record 31 Canadian
National Championship events in singles, doubles
and mixed doubles. She earned four individual
medals at Commonwealth Games in 1986, 1990 she
won silver, and 1990 & 1994 she won bronze
medals. Internationally she took the singles
event in France 1982, the Welsh championship
titles in 1991 and 1995 and 1983 she won gold at
the Austrian International and then the Portugal
Open in 1998. From 2004 through 2015 she was
chief professional trainer for the Quebec
badminton team. She has also worked with
Canada's National Coaching Program.
June 23
Lillian Palmer-Anderson. née Palmer. Born June 23, 1913, Vancouver, British
Columbia. Died March 28, 2001, Vancouver British Columbia. In
the 1932 Summer Olympic Games, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Lillian won the silver medal in the 4 X 100 metres event with
Mildred Fizzell (1915-1993), Mary Frizzell (1913-1972) and Hilda
Strike (1910-1989). In 1934 at the British Empire Games, (now
Commonwealth Games) London, England, she was once more a member
of the Canadian relay team this time winning the gold medal in
the 220-110-220-110 yards event. At the 1934 Women's World
Games, London, England Lillian was captain of the Canadian team
and was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. At this event
she finished in forth place in the 200 metre race. In 1982 she
was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame and in 1989
she was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.
(2022)
Norah Urquhart. Born
June 23, 1918, Coburg, Ontario. Died March 13, 2009, Pickering, Ontario. Norah married Dr. Fred Urquhart
(1911-2002) in 1945
and the couple settled in Highland Creek,
Scarborough, Ontario where son Doug was born. A
zoologist with the Royal Ontario Museum and the
University of Toronto,
Fred had an avocation for the Monarch Butterfly.
With very little support the couple began a
tagging program from their home to learn where
the Monarch butterfly’s of Ontario went each
winter. Eventually joined volunteers, it was
Norah who answered all enquiries and posted a
newsletter to all involved. She attended to
public relations including writing an article
for a Mexican newspaper in 1972. The article was
read by a future volunteer and by 1975 the first
Mexican valley of the Monarch’s was located. The
couple’s work is considered the entomological
discovery of the 20th Century. These
pioneers had their work recognized with
investiture into the Order of Canada in 1998. Sources:
“couples home was butterfly ground
zero” Toronto Daily Star (accessed June 2009); InsideToronto.
“Norah Urquhart, a pioneer in Monarch Butterfly
research”. (accessed June 2009) ; Information
was also supplied by Donald Davis, Toronto,
Ontario; also personal knowledge.
June 24
Anne Isobel MacLeod.
née Black. Born June
24, 1913, Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. Died October 19. 2019,
Ottawa, Ontario. Isobel relocated,
with her family, to Edmonton, Alberta in the 1920’s. After high
school she courageously enrolled in a five year degree program
at the University of Alberta. Isobel was one of just three
graduates in 1936. For awhile she was assistant Supervisor for
the Victorian Order of Nurses. From 1944 through 1949 she earned
her Master’s degree in Nursing Administration from Columbia
University in New York City, U.S.A. After graduating she took a
position of Director of Nursing and Principal at the School of
Nursing at the Montreal General Hospital in 1953 and remained
until retirement in 1975. At 1st some were skeptical since she
was not a graduate of the School of Nursing. She was the first
director who was not a graduate. Sometime later she was
presented with a nursing cap of the Montreal General Hospital
and she wore it with pride. The School of Nursing now provides
an annual Isobel MacLeod Award for nursing assistants. She would
oversee 1, 852 graduates during her tenure. In 1953 she also
married. Alistair William Thompson MacLeod (d 2004) psychiatrist
and after her retirement from the School of Nursing she worked
with him as his Montreal practice. In the mid 1990’s the couple
retired and moved to retirement living in Ottawa. In 2003 they
celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In 2013 she
celebrated her 100th birthday.Source:
Sonia Mendes, ‘Nursing Pioneer’s reflections at 101’. The
Ottawa Citizen, June 21, 2014.
Suggestion submitted by June Coxon, Ottawa, Ontario.(2020)
Barbara Ann Underhill.
Born
June 24, 1963, Pembroke, Ontario. With her
skating partner, Paul Martini (1960- ) she
would win five consecutive Canadian Pairs
Championships. In 1978 they won gold at the
World Junior Championships, Megeve, France and
the following year they won their 1st senior
national title and made their World Championship
debut in 11th place. They were Olympians in
1980, Lake Placid, New York, U.S.A. where they
placed 9th. They were third in the 1983 Words
and won the World Championships on home ice in
Ottawa March 20-25. She Married hockey coach
Rick Gaetz and the couple have three children.
Sadly one of her twin daughters drowned in 1993.
Barbara started the Stephanie Gaetz Keepsafe
Foundation to reduce injuries in childhood, with
a focus on water safety. Barbara worked 16 years
as a skating TV commentator, retiring in 2006.
She worked with young Canadian hockey players
helping to develop speed and power. They turned
professional and worked with Ice Capades after
their amateur successes. They are both members
of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. In 2009 she
was named to the World Figure Skating Hall of
Fame. In 2011 she was named by the Hockey News
as one of the 100 most influential people in ice
hockey. April 20, 2012 she joined the Toronto
Maple Leaf's as a skating consultant.
June 25
Celia
Franca.
née Franks.
Born June 25, 1921, London, England. Died
February 19, 2007, Ottawa, Ontario. . Celia was
introduced to dance when she was just four years
old. She studied at the Guildhall School of
Music and the Royal Academy of Dance. She made
her professional debut when she was 14. In 1947
she joined the Metropolitan Ballet of Britain as
a soloist and ballet mistress.
and began choreographing for television. In 1950
she was offered a position to stat a Canadian
classical company. To support herself at this
time she worked as a file clerk at Eaton's
department store. The new company opened on
November 12, 1951. She became in 1959
the founding artistic director of the National
Ballet of Canada. She was strong willed and
determined ballet dancer traits required to face
the many trials over the 23 years as she helped
the young ballet company to succeed. She was
appointed to the Order of Canada in 1967 and in
1985 she was promoted a Companion in the Order.
In 1994 she received the Governor General's
Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic
Achievement. In 1979 she joined the School of
Dance in Ottawa as a co-artistic director. She
was a member of the board of governors of York
University, Toronto and the board of directors
of the Canada Council. She later served on the
Board of Directors for the Canada Dance Festival
Society. Her biography The Pursuit of
Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca by Carol
Bishop-Gwyn was published in 2011.
Patricia Martin Bates.
née
Martin. Born June 25, 1927, Saint John, New
Brunswick. Patricia's artistic talents were
recognized while she was quite young and she was
given formal private studies in art when she was
just 12. She went on to study at the Academie
Royale des beaus-arts, the royal Academy of fine
arts in Belgium at the Sorbonne, Paris, France
and the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York, U.S.A.
A highly innovative artist, she brought
imagination to her artistic prints. Some of her
works are two sided! She is primarily known for
her printmaking and her embossing techniques.
She limits her colours to black, white, and
silver and is inspired by the art of the Islamic
Middle East and Zen Buddhists. In the 1960's she
became known for her Plexiglas cube sculptures.
She taught from 1965 at the University of
Victoria, British Columbia where she became a
full professor in 1977. That same year she was
presented the Queen Elizabeth ll Silver Jubilee
Medal. She has also earned the Zachenta Medal
from Poland and the International Print Art of
Norway Gold Medal. She had exhibited her works
in China, Chile, Yugoslavia. Poland, Great
Britain, Norway, Japan, France, Argentina,
Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austral is and the
United States. The Pat Martin Bates
Scholarship in Visual Arts was established by Canadian
Federation of University Women of Victoria. Her
biography has been written by Patricia Bovey, Pat
Martin Bates: Balancing on a Thread.
June 26
Marian Mildred Dale
- Scott. née
Dale. Born
June 26, 1906, Montreal, Quebec. Died November
28, 1993, Montreal, Quebec. Marion enjoyed art as
a youth and actually had her 1st show of her
works in 1918. Marion studied at the Ecole des
beaux arts, Montreal,
Quebec and the Slade School of Art, London,
England. In 1928 she married lawyer and poet F.
R. Scott (1899-1985) and the couple had one son.
In the 1930's they were both active in the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
(CCF). Mainly a painter of landscapes she also
painted the people of Montreal in the depression
era. Her works showed people up against machines
and hard times. Her works were organized
geometrically as she experimented with fresh art
forms. She taught from 1935-1938 at the
Children's Art Centre set up by Dr. Norman
Bethune (1822-1939) and joined the Contemporary
Arts Society in 1939. Between 1948 and 1977 she
held nine solo exhibitions of her work at
galleries in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City.
A pacifist she campaigned for nuclear
disarmament in the 1950's and against the war in
Vietnam in the 1960's. In 200 a biography was
published, Marian Dale Scott: Pioneer of
Modern Art by Esther Trepanier.
Marion Margaret Cuming.
Born June 26, 1936. Marion would
do her post graduate studies in teaching but instead of teaching
she chose to study art in France, Mexico, and Italy before
returning to Canada. She has used her artistic talents to help
emotionally disturbed children and has worked with Canadian
street kids. She has worked closely with UNESCO related
activities. For her personal artistic expression she
enjoys drawing Canadian heritage subjects. (2018)
June 27
Maria Monk.
Born June 27, 1816,
Died 1849. It is rumoured that she stuck a pencil in her ear and
caused some brain damage when she was only seven years old. As a
young adult, she ran off to the U.S.A. where she claimed to have
been a Nun who had been sexually exploited. The newspapers and
magazines picked up on her stories and in 1936 a book was
published under the title of The Awful Disclosures of Maria
Monk or the Hidden Secrets of a Nun. The book fuelled the
anti-Catholic sentiment of the era and was popular reading. A
sequel to the popular first volume soon followed. Investigations
into the truth of the works also followed. These later
investigations would show that the premises of the books were
false but the harm had been done to strengthen religious
dissention. Marie herself simply drifted off to live a life that
would end in an almshouse at Blackwell’s Island in New York.
Source: D C B (accessed May 2008)
May Irwin. (Real
name Georgina May Campbell)
Born June 27, 1862,
Whitby, Ontario. Died October 22, 1938. As early
as 1872 she and her sister Flora were singing on
stage. Once the sister act split up, May would
go on and become a well known Broadway
performer. Her movie career was short but
historically significant. Thomas Edison, the
famous inventor, placed May in the staring role
in his pioneering one minute moving picture
called The Kiss. It was was considered
scandalous by early movie audiences and the
clergy! It is considered to be the first moving
picture to ever be shown in Canada! May would
make only one other movie Mrs. Black is Back before
she retired to live with her husband and two
children. She is also credited with having named
the famous Thousand Island Salad Dressing. She
and her family owned a vacation home in the 1000
islands.
Marie-Joseph-Angélique.
Born circa 1710, Baptized June 28, 1730. She was a black slave
who had the misfortune to fall in love with a white man, Claude
Thibault. They fled from Canada to New England in the
United States. To mask their escape she set fire to her master's
house. The fire burnt out of control and 46 homes were destroyed
along with the famous Hotel Dieu hospital. She was captured and
sentenced to have her hand cut off and be burned alive. The
sentence was changed to handing before her body was burned. Her
ashes were scattered to the wind.(2018)
Measha
Bruggergosman - Lee.
née Gosman. Born June 28, 1977, Fredericton, Nova Scotia. As a
child, she sang in her Baptist Church choir. From the age of
seven she would study voice and piano. As a teen summer holiday
time found her studying on scholarships at the Boston
Conservatory in the U.S.A. She obtained a Bachelor of Music at
the University of Toronto and then off she went to Germany for a
five years Masters degree program at the Robert Schumann
Hochschuls in Düsseldorf. In 1998 at 20 years of age, she
premiered in the title role of a new opera Beatrice Chancy and
her career was launched into orbit. In 1999 she married her high
school beau who was an exchange student. Measha and Mark
Brugger combined their surnames to form their family name. The
couple had two children. She has performed around the globe. She
has been across her native Canada, been on CBC TV and earned an
Gemini Award nomination. In 1998 she won the Canada Council for
the Arts Award. In 2000 she debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York
City before moving on to Japan, Switzerland, German, and other
U.S.A. destinations. The Grand Prize of Jeunesse Musicales
Montreal Internationale Musical Completion was won by Measha. In
2007 she found time between performances to serve as the
Goodwill Ambassador for the African Medical and Research
Foundation working for better health in Africa. A Juno Award was
hers in 2008 for her classical Album of the year. She has taken
international awards in London, England, New York City, U.S.A.,
Oslo, Norway and Munich, Germany just to name a few countries.
In June 2009 she was forced to take time off to have open heart
surgery. Never one to be kept down she returned to perform again
in September 2009at the Toronto International Film
Festival. In 2009 she earned the Grand Prize at the Jeunesses
Musicales / Montreal International Musical Competition and won
First Prize at the International Vocal Competition's
Hertogenbosch. She had a heart condition in June 2009 and took
time to heal after open heart surgery. In 2010 she wan a Juno
Award for Classical Album of the Year. In 2015 she appeared in
the television documentary series Songs of Freedom, as she
explored her African Heritage. In June 2019 she underwent
another successful open heart surgery. In 2018 she and her
husband divorced. In 2021 she Married Jazz guitarist Steve Lee.
(2018) (2023)
Shelagh Dawn Grant.
Born
June 28,1938, Montreal, Quebec. She completed her
studies in nursing sciences at the University of
Western Ontario, London she took time out to
raise her three children. She returned to school
attending Trent University, Peterborough,
Ontario earning a B.A. in history in 1983 before
heading to London, England and Washington DC for
archival research. Her master thesis became her
1st published book, Sovereignty or Security?Government
Policy in the Canadian North, 1939-1950 published
by the University of British Columbia Press in
1988. A study group
with the former Canadian Institute for
International Affairs took her to remote Arctic
locations such as the Svalbard Islands and in
Greenland: Station Nord, Meistervig and the
United States Thule Air Base. She
is a professor of History and Canadian Studies
at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. She
was the 1st historian and 1st woman to receive
the Northern Science Award in 1996. She
has beenactive on
various Inuit policy advisory committees,
editorial boards and northern scholarship
committees. She also presented papers at a
number of international conferences: in
Australia, Central Siberia, England, Scotland
and Iceland. She
has been editor of various reviews and co-editor
for Federalism in Canada and Australia published
in 1989. Her work Polar Imperative: A history of
Arctic Sovereignty in North America in 2010 was
the winner of the 2011 Lionel Gelber Prize for
the best English language book on global affairs
and the J. W. Dafoe Book Prize.
June 29
Thelma
Finlayson.
Born June 29, 1914. Died September 15,
2016, Burnaby, British Columbia. Thelma attended the University
of Toronto graduating in 1936. She began her entomological
career in 1937 as
a Technical Officer for the Canada Department of
Agriculture at the Belleville Research Institute. She
was one of the 1st women scientists to enter the
federal government research branch.In
1967 she was appointed Assistant professor and
Curator of Entomology at Simon Fraser
University (S F U ), the 1st women in the Department of
Biological Sciences.A founding
member of S F U's Centre for Pest Management she
became a full professor in 1976. She was a
Professor Emeritus for the Department of
Biological Science at S F U in 1979. The Thelma
Finlayson Society at the University is named for
her as is the Thelma Finlayson Centre for
Student Engagement. As a student counsellor she
helped more than 8,000 students as she worked
past the age of 95.She wrote approximately 40
research papers, and several books in
entomology. She severed as director of the
International Organization of Biologists. In
2005 she was inducted into the Order of Canada.
She was elected a lifetime Member of the
Canadian University Women's Society. In 2007 she
was recognized with a YMCA Woman Of Distinction
Award and in 2010 she received S F U's
Chancellor's Distinguished Service Award.
Janice Gaye
Rennie.
Born June 29, 1957. She describes
herself as a self employed financial consultant. She has won
numerous scholarships and awards for her university studies at
the University of Alberta. She was a Chartered Accountant at
Ernst & Young from 1979 to 1985. She has held numerous executive
positions with private companies including being Corporate
Director. She won the Commerce Cup from her peers and in
1980 she won the Provincial Gold Medal and the National Silver
Medal from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. She
is also giving of her time and talents to her community having
worked with the YMCA and the United Way campaigns. She is
married and mother of two children. From May 2006 - 2010 she was
an Independent Director of Methanex Corporation and then
moved to Major Drilling Group.
June 30
Joyce
Wieland.
Born June 30, 1931, Toronto, Ontario. Died June 27,
1998, Toronto, Ontario. Joyce studied commercial
art and graphic design at Central Technical
School in Toronto graduating in 1948. By 1953
she was working at Graphic Associates animation
studio. She married filmmaker Michael Snow in
1956 and the marriage lasted until 1976. This
artist had her 1st exhibition in 1960. She went
to New York City with her husband and
experimented with films. She took her
inspiration from Canadian history, politics and
ecology. Her artistic works covered a multitude
of media from canvas, quilting, and embroidery
to film of which sh would make 20. In 1987 a
film Artist on Fire was made about
her. (2021)