Mary Grannan | |
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Born | Mary Evelyn Grannan 11 February 1900 Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada |
Died | 3 January 1975 Fredericton |
(aged 74)
Occupation | Teacher, radio personality, writer |
Language | English |
Nationality | Canadian |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | Just Mary, Maggie Muggins |
Mary Evelyn Grannan (11 February 1900 – 3 January 1975) was a Canadian children's writer and radio personality. She wrote and performed in programs for children on CBC radio and CBC television between 1938 and 1962. Stories broadcast on her radio and television programs Just Mary and Maggie Muggins were published in a series of popular books.
Mary Grannan was born into an Irish Canadian Roman Catholic family in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada on 11 February 1900. She was the second of three daughters born to William Peter Grannan and Catherine Teresa Haney. Her father, a wheelwright by trade, was also employed as a fireman. Mary Grannan attended St. Dunstan's School, a Roman Catholic elementary school, and then Fredericton High School. She attended New Brunswick's Provincial Normal School in Fredericton from September 1917 to June 1918, graduating as a teacher second class.
In 1919 Mary Grannan began teaching Grade 1 at the Devon Superior School in the town of Devon, just across the Saint John River from Fredericton. She spent the rest of her 20-year teaching career at the school, where she was noted for her talents as a storyteller and as an author and producer of plays performed by her students. She took private elocution lessons, and participated in amateur theatre productions in Fredericton. In the summer of 1927 she studied at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston, and later contributed editorial cartoons to the Daily Gleaner, a Fredericton newspaper.