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Introduction

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)

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.

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

Marie (Mary)-Rose-Anne Travers. 
Born June 4, 1894, Newport, Gaspésie, Quebec. Died February 20, 1941. She is best known as Madame Bulduc or LA BULDUC in the 1930's. She would become Canada's premier chansonère (singer), and as the Queen of Canadian Folk Singers,  composing and singing songs of ordinary daily life of Quebec. La Bulduc is often considered to be Quebec's 1st  female singer/songwriter. She combined the traditional folk music of Ireland and Quebec the two acquired music genres of her parents. By 1908, when she was just 13, She was giving public performances playing the according at the logging camp where her father worked as a cook.
That same year she went to live in Montreal with family where she worked as a maid for $15.00 a month plus room and board. A few years later she was working in a textile mill. 60 hours a week. On August 17, 1914 she married a plumber, Edward Bolduc. Mary had twelve pregnancies but only four children reached adulthood.  In 1921 the family moved to Springfield Massachusetts, U.S.A. to look for work but a year later they were back in Montreal. Mary it seems always entertained family and friends and sometimes  performed with the Veillees du bon vieux temps at the Monument-National. The small payment from her entertaining was useful for the family and by 1928 she was performing regularly. She was signed up with the Compo company on Star records and earned $25.00 per side of a record. She made her 1st recording April 1929. and her second recording for Christmas of that same year. The second record more than 12,000 copies! Much of her music were comedic songs. She went on to become  a French language singing  legend in her home province. By the end of 1930 she had recorded more than 30 songs and had collaborated with 56 recordings of other artists. ! In March 1931she was headlining a burlesque company at Theatre Arlequin de Quebec. She began touring in 1932. giving 50 shows from August through December. She went on to tour in New England in the U.S.A. in 1934 and the French speaking areas of Northern Ontario in 1935. By 1936 she had produced 33 records and the family could afford a nanny to take care of their children. In June 1937 she was injured in an automobile accident and while in hospital it was discovered that she had cancer. Her insurance would not pay for treatments of the cancer. She could not write songs due to a concussion that cause memory loss. In 1938 she was again on tour but only in Montreal. She did do radio broadcasts and  and made two new recordings in 1931. About 100 recordings survive but she also wrote songs for special occasions that were not recorded. Canada Post issued a stamp in her honour on August 12, 1994. There is a museum exhibit in her home town of Newport. In April 2018 a biographical film, La Bulduc was released. image; ©CanadaPostCorporation Used with permission

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)

Judy Jarvis     Dancer
Born June 6, 1946, Ottawa, Ontario. Died November 1, 1986, Toronto, Ontario. Judy devoted her life to introducing a distinctively European aesthetic to the Canadian dance scene. She was recognized as a brilliant dancer and this allowed her strength in her teachings. From 1967 through 1983 she was the force behind a series of companied teaching classes and hold workshops at Canadian universities. The Judy Jarvis and Theatre Company toured in Canada, Berlin, Germany and Edinborough, Scotland. In 1983 her company lost it’s government funding forcing Judy to attend teachers’ college. At the time of her death she was teaching dramatic arts at a Toronto high school. In 1988 the Judy Jarvis Foundation was established to promote and protect her work.

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)

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.

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)

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.

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.

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)

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 1^st 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)

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.

Sarah Margaret Armor Robertson   Artist
Born June 16, 1891, Montreal, Quebec. Died December 6, 1948, Montreal, Quebec. From 1909 through 1924 she studied at the Art Association of Montreal. It was during this time that she became part of the Modernist movement in Canada. She joined the Beaver Hall Group of painters in 1922 in time for their 2nd showing. Most of the members of the Hall shared studio space and were rejected by the mainstream galleries. The women of Beaver Hall continued after the main group had disbanded in 1923. In 1924-1925 she was showing her paintings in Great Britain to positive reviews. After her father’s death in 1926 she painted so that she could pay her living with her mother. In 1928 on of her paintings, The Blue Sleigh appeared in a Group of Seven Art Show.

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)

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)

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].

Simone Mary Bouchard    Artist
Born June 19, 1912, Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. Died July 30, 1945, Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec. Simone was one of three sisters who were primitive or folk art painters in Quebec. Simone enjoyed the traditional art of hooked rugs which she made to sell in the local tourist trade. She would meet anthropologist Marius Barbeau and would repair textiles for him. In 1937 one of her paintings was included in an exhibition of North American folk arts. In 1941 she also exhibited her work in the Première exposition des indépendants at Palais Montcalm in Quebec City. Posthumous retrospectives of her work were shown in 1947 and 1952 at the Dominion Art Gallery in Montreal. Her works are included in the collections of the Musée national des beaus arts du Québec and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. 

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 Middle East.  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 of the 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)  

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)

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)

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.

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)

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.

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. 

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.

© Public Domain

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)

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.

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)