Memorable Manitobans: Mary Lile Benham (1914-1991)

Author, historian.

Born at Winnipeg on 8 October 1914, grand-daughter of Edward Lancaster Drewry, Benham was educated at Rupertsland School. She started writing for the Winnipeg Free Press during the Second World War, writing a column entitled “What Can I Do?”. After retirement, she wrote a number of biographies of famous Canadians for schoolchildren, as well as much local history, including a history of St. George’s Church in the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Crescentwood. She won the 1984 YWCA Woman of the Year award. She died at Winnipeg on 26 January 1991. Her papers are held in the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

Her articles for the Manitoba Historical Society:

Whither the Weather
Manitoba Pageant, Spring 1971, Volume 16, Number 3

Sources:

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 29 January 1991, page 32.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 26 June 2022

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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