Educator, novelist.
Born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on 24 January 1940 to Elizabeth Thornton (1911-1983) and Andrew Brands Baxter (1906-1964), she married Forbes George (1939-2020) in 1959, with whom she went on to have three sons. As a young woman, she began a career in education as a primary school teacher in Scotland, then in 1967 started her own school in Aberdeen—the St. Swithin Street Nursery School. Upon coming to Canada in 1969, she continued her career in education by teaching elementary school for some years. Always active in the church, she became Pastoral Assistant at First Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg, a position she held for 11 years.
One of her passions was history, which she nurtured by earning an Honours Classics degree at the University of Winnipeg and by becoming Classics Gold Medalist. Her love of history was also revealed in her foray into writing historical romance novels. The first one was released in 1987. Called The Bluestocking Bride, it was published by Kensington Publishing in the UK under the Zebra Historical Romance imprint. Her pen-name, Elizabeth Thornton, was her mother’s name, and she went on to publish 26 more books of the same genre, gaining her a reputation as an international best-selling author.
She died at the Victoria Hospital on 12 July 2010.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 14 July 2010.
Obituary [Forbes George], Winnipeg Free Press, 25 July 2020.
“Mary Forrest Baxter,” Fraser Family Tree, Ancestry.
Elizabeth Thornton, Wikipedia.
“Elizabeth Thornton Book and Series List,” FictionDB.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 24 September 2025
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