Village Squire, 1979-04, Page 25PEOPLE
Alice Munro, prizes are piling up.
Who Do You Think You Are? is the title
of Alice Munro's latest book and if the
question is asked of the lady, she should
certainly know. Ms. Munro, a native of
Wingham who now lives just down the road
in Clinton, is one of the top names in
Canadian literature at the moment. Last
month she picked up her second
Governor -General's Award for the collect-
ion of 10 short stories about a girl who
grows up in a Western Ontario town and
goes on to experience life across the
country, always carrying her past with her.
She had first won the Governor -General's
award for fiction in 1968 for her book Dance
of the Happy Shades. The award carries a
cash prize of $5000. Last year she was the
first Canadian winner of the Canada -Aust-
ralia literary prize. To prove writing talent
runs in the family the posthumous
publishing of her father Robert E.
Laidlaw's novel The MacGregors is
expected soon from Macmillan of Canada.
It's been a good year all round for
Western Ontario authors. Joan Barfoot, a
native of Owen Sound and present resident
of London won the Books in Canada award
for Miss Barfoot's novel Abra, about a
woman who gets tired of her everyday life
as mother and wife and goes off W a life in
an isolated cabin. Miss Barfoot began
writing with several newspapers and is
presently working at the London Free
Press. She has completed a second novel
and will take a year off beginning in June
to work on a third novel.
Fifty years in any business is quite a
record. Fifty years of survival in the
grueling weekly newspaper business is a
miracle. So it's little wonder that the
Canadian Community Newspaper Associa-
tion created a special award for those who
have served the profession for more than a
half -century. In March Mrs. Wanda
Mounteer was presented with the Golden
Quill Award by CCNA President Ian
McKenzie at the 29th annual Ontario
Weekly Newspaper Association convention
in Toronto' in March. Mrs. Mounteer
worked at the Mitchell Advocate first with
her husband and later by herself until her
retirement last August.
Fifty years is just a short time however
for Annie MacKenzie of Lucknow. She
recently celebrated her 103rd birthday.
Born in Huron township on March 12, 1876
she studied as a nurse in Mountainside
Hospital in Montclair, New Jersey and
graduated in 1908. In 1910 she married
William MacKenzie of Lucknow and they
lived in the village until his death in 1941.
Among those sending greetings on her
birthday was a close friend Helen Ross of
Toronto who is a mere 100 years old. Mrs.
MacKenzie and her sister Ethel travelled
to Milverton for Helen's wedding by horse
and buggy.
He's lived a fascinating life that included
both poverty and wealth doing everything
from being a professional soldier to an
aircraft engineer, to a newspaper and
magazine editor and freelance writer and a
farmer. Now, he's letting others know
about it through newspaper columns and
radio broadcasts. Don Campbell, a
Lucknow-area resident began a new radio
program on FM 102 on April 2. Mr.
Campbell's regular newspaper column
Acres of Memory is carried in newspapers
throughout Ontario and as far away as
British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatche-
wan. He also has a weekly radio program
by the same name on FM 102 which can be
heard at 9:30 a.m. Sunday mornings. The
new daily broadcast called This is My Life
will cover a series of short stories from
childhood to maturity. The show will be
heard twice daily at 8:15 a.m. and 1:15
p.m.
The history of Bruce County is getting a
new, popular treatment from a local writer
and the Ontario Arts Council is helping
out. The OAC has recently announced a
grant to Laura M. Gateman to help with the
completion of research and photography
for the book. Mrs. Gateman began writing
in 1973, doing articles of a historical nature
for the Queen's Bush Quill. She also writes
regularly for the Walkerton Herald Times.
Mrs. Gateman began the Bruce history but
had to interrupt her work when she was
asked to write a history of the township of
Brant. That book is expected to be
published in October. She hopes to have
her Bruce history book completed some
time next year. An Ontario publisher has
already expressed interest.
icoQei loto
We're out of the way
but worth the trip.
PAINTINGS CRAFTS
Original oils, acrylics, pastels,
water colours, ink sketches
by various artists.
Hand sewn quilts, antique farm
machinery models, knitted &
crocheted articles, etc.
DARIiNq STudio
WROXETER
[1 block west of main intersection]
HOURS:
Tuesday -Friday 1 p.m. -8 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
consignments from artists
and craftsmen welcome.
335-6362
April 1979, Village Squire 23