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Imagination ran wild as the little girl and her two sisters listened to the vivid oral stories of their mother and father reading storybooks. Creating a theatre in their backyard in Fredericton, New Brunswick in the early 1900s, the girls sang and acted to bring the stories to life. School and training provided Mary Evelyn Grannan with more opportunities to perform. This heartwarming performer became a pioneer in children’s broadcasting and publishing in Canada.

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Grannan’s father, William, was a captain with the Fredericton Fire Department’s No. 2 Company, he said. The New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia(NBLE) and “enjoyed drawing and reading.” Her mother, Catherine, a homemaker, “was a rich source of humor and storytelling.” Grannan’s childhood was filled with creativity and artistic joy.

After high school, Grannan enrolled at the Provincial Normal School, graduating at age 17 with a teaching certificate. Hired by Devon Superior School, the young professional taught for several years, instructing students through dramatic storytelling.

At age 27, Grannan studied commercial art at Boston’s Vesper George School of Art. After completing her coursework, she worked on various projects, including a set of Art Deco posters for Downtown Fredericton. “In June 1930, she contributed several cartoons for political advertisements in Daily Gleaner “during the provincial election campaign,” Margaret Anne Hume noted in Just Mary: The Life of Mary Evelyn Grannan (Dundurn Press, Toronto 2006). At the same time, Grannan gained experience in local theater, training in diction, breathing exercises, gestures, and performance, reading Dickens, Shakespeare, and others.

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While continuing to teach, Grannan became interested in radio in 1935 when she and another teacher participated in a broadcast on the new radio station CFNB during National Education Week. While writing scripts, Grannan produced popular radio shows part-time, such as “Aggravating Agatha” in 1936, while teaching full-time.

Grannan, adept at quickly coming up with plots and writing scripts, earned 75 cents for paperwork plus another 75 cents for voice-overs for on-air roles. The money was welcome, since her earnings as a teacher had been cut during the Great Depression. In 1921, Grannan earned $750 a year, but by 1934, her salary had been cut to $630, Hume wrote. The teacher loved her job more than the income, but new adventures lay ahead.

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In 1937, Grannan resigned from her teaching job. With the help of station owner Stewart Neill, she launched her own children’s radio show called “Just Mary.” Featuring character roles in her engaging voice, Grannan’s show became an instant hit. In 1939, the CBC hired the talented performer. Bidding farewell to the coast, she moved to Toronto.

Well-paid for her radio work, Grannan was initially unsure. Writing to a former colleague in New Brunswick, she said, “even though I am now a show woman, with a salary that doesn’t look like a school lady’s, I am still a school lady at heart and if I don’t find happiness in this job I will go back to the job I love,” Hume quoted.

Hume said radio station executives were delighted to have Grannan join the CBC, and even mentioned her to the March 1940 House of Commons Select Committee on Broadcasting: “She is one of the few people with a natural talent for radio broadcasting, both in script writing and microphone technique.”

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Building a devoted audience, “Just Mary” aired for a remarkable twenty-three years on CBC radio on Sunday afternoons. Grannan, a natural marketer, wrote books to accompany the radio show. Over the years, 400,000 copies were sold. (Depending on genre, a book is considered a Canadian bestseller if it sells 5,000 copies.) In 1947, the author created a radio show called “Mary Muggins” and designed a doll to charm little girls. The pretty doll was wildly popular, “and more than 11,000 of these toys were sold in 1948 alone,” the NBLE reported.

Entertaining and educating children was Grannan’s gift. During her career at CBC, she wrote 18 more series, creating “some of the most iconic children’s programs in Canada.” In addition to her two wildly popular shows, other shows aired for only a year or two, such as “Katy Circus Days” (1958) and “Karen Discovers America” ​​(1952), while others aired for several years, such as “Jubilee Road” (1953-1956) and “The Children’s Scrapbook” (1939-1946). Expanding her reach, Grannan adapted the radio shows “Just Mary” and “Maggie Muggins” for television audiences, including various puppet characters.

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Grannan, an enthusiastic corporate employee, “actively participated in marketing campaigns to sell her books and promote her radio shows,” she said. Canada Parks in “Mary Grannan, National Historic Person (1900-1975). Her efforts “transformed her into a public figure, known throughout the country for her distinctive style of dress, characterized by large jewelry and extravagant hats.”

Having performed in public speaking and lectures, Grannan last spoke to students at Teachers College at the University of New Brunswick in early March 1967. Some audience members were skeptical. “Grannan’s talent and charisma revealed that the full impact of her legendary tales lay as much in her skillful delivery as in the construction of the stories,” Hume noted. Every critic among the students was won over.

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In her captivating style, Mary Grannan “helped establish a tradition of gentle, fantastic, elegantly slow, wholesome storytelling,” she described Canada Parks. The compelling creator was an “internationally recognized, award-winning pioneer of Canadian children’s programming in English.”

Such distinguished professional work deserved recognition. “Grannan valued winning the Beaver Award for distinguished service to Canadian radio, (plus) an honorary citation from the Institute for Education by Radio at Ohio State University,” Hume said. She also received honorary membership in the International Mark Twain Society of St. Louis.

At mid-century, CBC policy required women to retire at 60, while men could work until 65. Grannan was unhappy with the situation, but she happily received glowing letters of praise and thanks… and was accepted into the CBC Pioneers Club. After the retirement party, she cleaned the office. But there was no stopping this creative spirit. Grannan worked as a freelancer for a while.

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Packing up her apartment and her memories, the broadcasting expert boarded a train in July 1962. Returning to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Grannan and her sisters Ann and Helen made their home together. After breakfast on the morning of January 3, 1975, Mary Grannan unexpectedly suffered heart failure. She died sitting on the edge of her bed. The beloved personality was buried with her parents and sisters in the family plot at Hermitage Cemetery.

In 1999, the Province of New Brunswick designated the Grannan family home as a protected provincial historic site, Mary Grannan House. A plaque was installed on the house in downtown Fredericton, but the marker unfortunately disappeared around 2021.

Susanna McLeod is a writer based in Kingston, Ontario.

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