Women’s history

October is Women’s History Month in Canada. This gives me a great excuse to write about Elsie MacGill, the Queen of the Hurricanes. Elsie Gregory MacGill grew up on Harwood Street in Vancouver’s West End in the early years of the twentieth century. While other little girls in her dance class dreamed of performing on… Continue reading Elsie MacGill (1905-1980)

Rolie Moore grew up in Burnaby’s Hart House and became the president of the Flying Seven, Canada’s first all female pilot club I had the pleasure of having lunch with the delightful George Garrett at Hart House last week, a restaurant I’ve wanted to visit ever since I first heard that one of its inhabitants… Continue reading Rolie Moore, the Flying Seven and Burnaby’s Hart House Restaurant

Beatrice Lennie created a mural for the Hotel Vancouver’s lobby in 1939. It’s been hidden behind a wall since 1967. This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.  Beatrice Lennie: When Beatrice Lennie graduated from the first class at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now Emily Carr University… Continue reading Behind the Wall at the Hotel Vancouver

Thursday November 25 is International Day. Remembering Olga Hawryluk, 23, murdered May 3, 1945.  From Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance and the Blood, Sweat and Fear podcast. Granville Street: On May 2, 1945, Olga finished her shift at the Empire Café on West Hastings at 2:30 am and was walking to… Continue reading Remembering Olga Hawryluk (1922-1945)

October is women’s history month, and I can’t think of anyone more inspirational than Ivy Granstrom: Queen of the Polar Bears This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Meet Ivy Granstrom: Ivy Granstrom participated in 76 consecutive polar bear swims. She began in 1928, as a 16-year-old, which, incidentally, was… Continue reading Ivy Granstrom: Queen of the Polar Bears

The Flying Seven formed in 1935 and were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’ club  Vancouver’s aviatrices: This is one of my favourite photos. It ran with a story in Sensational Vancouver and shows six members of the Flying Seven posed in front of the rocket ship at Vancouver International Airport. The Flying Seven were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’… Continue reading The Flying Seven and the Cambie Street Rocket Ship

Can’t let Asian Heritage Month go by without a nod to Mary and Walter Chan, the Strathcona activists who helped keep the bulldozers at bay and rallied the community to preserve not only Chinatown, but a big chunk of our city’s culture and heritage. Chan family outside 658 Keefer ca.1968. From L to R: Larry… Continue reading May is Asian Heritage Month – Meet Mary Chan

Name recognition: Her name adorns a university, a school, a bridge, and a library. She is the subject of several documentaries, museum exhibits, books and plays. In 2009, her painting Wind in the Tree Tops sold for more than $2.1 million, one of the highest-priced Canadian paintings ever sold at auction. Tourists visit her family… Continue reading Emily Carr’s James Bay

Muriel “Capi” Wylie Blanchet of Vancouver Island died in 1961 without ever knowing what an incredible success her book would become. Capi’s story is part of the “Legendary Women” chapter in Sensational Victoria. Capi Blanchet was found dead in 1961, slumped over her typewriter while writing a sequel to The Curve of Time. For a writer,… Continue reading Muriel “Capi” Wylie Blanchet (1891-1961)

Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto may not be the first person who springs to mind for women’s history month, but she was brave and entrepreneurial and succeeded at a time when there were few opportunities for women, especially ones who weren’t white. Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto was an enterprising Japanese woman who was born in Tokyo and came to Canada… Continue reading Women’s History Month: Remembering Kiyoko Tanaka-Goto

The Vancouver Police Museum’s Kristin Hardie solved the mystery of this ca.1940 photo. The women police officers on patrol are Bessie Say and Jeanette Heathorn. This great Foncie photo of two women police officers ran in Sensational Vancouver, in a chapter called “Lurancy Harris’s Beat.” Lurancy was the first female police officer in Canada when… Continue reading Women Police Officers on Patrol

This is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver: A reporter once asked Phyllis Munday if she’d ever been really frightened during all her years of climbing mountains. “Thunderstorms,” she told him. “I hated thunderstorms.” What she didn’t mention was the time she saved husband Don Munday’s life from a grizzly bear by charging at it with… Continue reading Phyllis James Munday (1894-1990)

Because May is Asian Heritage Month it seems fitting to run a story about Joy Kogawa. The following is an excerpt from the Legendary Women chapter in Sensational Vancouver. Joy Kogawa’s childhood house is a modest wood-framed bungalow in South Vancouver. There’s really nothing architecturally significant about it except that it’s one of the few original… Continue reading Joy Kogawa’s House

Rena Del Pieve Gobbi came under fire last week for using discarded gravestones to hold up her garden. The garden is at Commercial and Powell, wedged in between the Maple Leaf Storage and the train tracks. Since 2001, Rena, an artist and documentary film-maker, has lived at the Artist Resource Centre which is just across… Continue reading Rena’s Gravestone Garden

Lurancy Harris and Minnie Millar became the first two women police officers in Canada when they were hired by the VPD in 1912 The following is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver. Joins VPD: Lurancy Harris was a 48-year-old seamstress from Nova Scotia had moved to Vancouver in 1911 and rented a small apartment on Robson… Continue reading Meet Lurancy Harris: Canada’s First Woman Police Officer

Most people have heard of Harry Jerome. His name adorns recreation centres and his statue is in Stanley Park. At one time he was the fastest man alive, setting a total of seven world records. In 1970 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. Fewer people remember his sister Valerie, yet she… Continue reading Black History Month: Valerie Jerome

This is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver. Eleanor Lum Wayne Avery knew nothing about the history of his house until one day he saw an elderly Chinese woman peering through his front room window. He invited her inside and discovered that she was Eleanor (Yip) Lum, and that she had been born in one of… Continue reading Meet Nellie Yip Quong

John Atkin can be a bit of a kill joy, always squashing rumours about secret tunnels in Chinatown, ghosts in the Dominion Building, and well, blood in Blood Alley. John squashes another rumour in his story about a tunnel that supposedly connected a sugar baron to a brothel, but in doing so he uncovered some… Continue reading Who was Maxine?

It’s been incredibly exciting seeing Sensational Vancouver claim the top spot on the Best of BC list for the past four weeks, and it’s made me pay close attention to the book section in the Vancouver Sun. What I’ve noticed is that M. Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time, has ranked in the top 10… Continue reading The Curve of Time: national bestseller after more than 50 years

The gorgeous woman pictured on the cover of Sensational Vancouver and featured in my chapter on Legendary Women is Tosca Trasolini. Tosca was a member of the Flying Seven, Canada’s first all-female aviators’ club. The club formed in 1935—the year she turned 24—after Margaret Fane—one of the Flying Seven flew to California to meet with… Continue reading Tosca Trasolini and the Flying Seven