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I was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba in 1877, growing up on my family's
farm. As a teen, I attended Normal School in Winnipeg. Later I was accepted
by the University of Manitoba. I was a pretty good student and graduated
in Medicine in 1915, winning the gold medal for the highest academic standing
and a prize for surgical history. After graduation I spent a year as an
intern and was then invited to assist in the Manitoba Provincial Laboratory
doing post-graduate work. In 1918 I became the Provincial Bacteriologist
in Saskatchewan. Four years later I was surprised to be chosen the Provincial
Pathologist, a post where I had to work closely with the RCMP in their
investigation of suspicious deaths. In such a male dominated area, this
was a very unusual honour at that time.
The nature of this work meant that I was often called at short notice
to investigate a death and frequently had to give up weekends and other
personal time. In 1934 alone I made 43 trips out of town on these investigations
and travelled thousands of kilometres by means that included dogsled,
snowmobile and float plane, often to have to deal with a grisly death
scene when I arrived. I also had the opportunity to promote the scientific
investigation of crime through lectures at the Police College in Regina.
After retiring as Provincial Pathologist in 1942, I continued to work
in private practice, primarily dealing with allergy problems. That was
short lived as the following year I was asked to take over temporarily
as head of the RCMP Crime Lab. You can imagine my surprise when, in 1946,
I was made Honourary Surgeon to the RCMP - only the second person to ever
hold such a distinction and the only woman, other than the Queen, to be
given honourary membership in the Force.
In summing up my career I would say that I helped to demonstrate the
importance of careful and accurate forensic pathology in bringing about
the just conclusion of criminal cases. I am pleased to say that I gained
the respect of my colleagues and of the police. Together we proved the
need for this type of work to both find and convict the guilty and to
exonerate the innocent. I could tell you many fascinating stories but I will leave that for another time 
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