Journalist, broadcaster.
Born at Inistloge, Kilkenny, Ireland on 24 September 1896, son of Frederick George L'Ami, his family immigrated to Canada in 1907 and settled on a homestead near Biggar, Saskatchewan. After working as a bank clerk and serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France, Belgium, and Germany (1915-1918) during the First World War, he began a career in journalism with the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.
Between 1922 and 1938, he worked successively for the Winnipeg Tribune, Manitoba Free Press, Border Cities Star (Windsor, Ontario), and Winnipeg Mirror. In 1938, he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a representative for the prairie region and editor of CBC Times. He also lectured on journalism and creative writing at the University of Manitoba (1945-1951). His novel The Green Madonna won the Westminster Prize for Fiction (1952). He was promoted to CBC Supervisor of Information Services in 1954. After retirement in 1961, he edited and broadcast the radio program Neighbourly News From the Prairies and he wrote radio scripts (1962-1977). His interest in the Russian author Mikhail Lermontov resulted in the 1967 book Michael Lermontov - Biography and Translation.
On 22 May 1926, he married journalist Christena Pearl Driscoll at Winnipeg and they had a son, Charles Francis Allan L'Ami (1932-2023).
He died at the King Edward Hospital on 12 October 1981. His cremains were distributed at the original L'Ami farm in Saskatchewan. He is commemorated by the C. E. L'Ami Memorial Prize in Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba.
Attestation papers [Charles Ernest Lami], Library and Archives Canada.
Marriage registration [Charles Ernest L'Ami, Christina Pearl Drescoll], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 16 October 1981, page 59.
Obituary [Charles Francis Allan L'Ami], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 June 2023.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 October 2026
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