Writer and editor, community activist.
Born at Shellmouth around 1931, youngest of seven children of Mary Annie Allbright (1888-1957) and Thomas Cope Garnett (1885-1963), she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Brandon College (1952) and was Lady Stick that year. She spent the next four years working in the Alberta oil industry in Calgary and Edmonton.
At the request of President John Robert Charles Evans, she returned to Brandon College as Secretary to the President and Manager of the College Bookstore, remaining as Assistant to the President until 1966. During the same time, she became General Secretary of the Brandon College Alumni Association, worked diligently to locate alumni, and created relationships with them.
In 1967, she and her partner Norma E. Walmsley moved to Ottawa then to Wakefield, Quebec where she worked as a freelance writer and editor. In recognition of her service to Brandon College, she received an Alumni Association Award (1970). She co-chaired the Brandon College Legacy Campaign for the restoration of Clark Hall and the original Brandon College Building (1997-1997) and, in 1998, she was named an Honorary Trustee of the Brandon University Foundation.
She co-authored, with Rev. Charles G. Stone, the 1969 book “Brandon College, A History 1899-1967” on the history of the institution up to the establishment of Brandon University.
In 2007, she lived near Wakefield, Quebec where she helped to renovate and expand the Wakefield Library.
Marriage registration [Mary Annie Allbright, Thomas Cope Garnett], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Norma Walmsley], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“The Garnett history” by Murray Garnett, in Shellmouth: Our Century, History of Shellmouth and District, Manitoba, Canada, c1983, page 180.
“Two named as outstanding volunteer fundraisers,” Brandon Sun, 3 June 2007, page 9.
Obituary [Norma E. Walmsley], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 January 2011.
Joan Garnett, Trail Pioneer, Sentiers Wakefield Trails, 7 July 2019.
“A fiery 40th,” The Low Down, 10 July 2024.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 11 September 2026
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