Edward John "Jack" Blatchford was born on the family farm near Bradwardine, MB on July 1, 1904. He remained at home to help with farm duties after attending Bradwardine School. In 1930, he rented a farm, but also worked odd jobs plowing the town gardens, hauling frieght and coal, taking care of the rink and butchering for the mink ranch in Hamiota and the beef ring. Jack married Jessie Bowyer Mawer on August 6, 1931 in Winnipeg.
Jessie was born on July 14, 1910 in the Tarbolton district of the RM of Daly and attended schools in Spring Valley, Tarbolton and Bradwardine. Her nursing training at the Brandon Mental Hospital was not completed when she married in 1931. After the marriage, the couple farmed north of Bradwardine before moving into the village in 1944, when Jack changed his occupation; he started a trucking business hauling grain for farmers and also working for Good Roads. Jack was also employed with Canadian Comstock at Rivers, Brandon and Carberry-Portage before being hired in the C.E. Section of the Department of National Defence at Rivers CFB. He held this position from 1959 until his retirement.
Jack was an avid sportsman, playing hockey, footbball, broomball, curling, baseball, softball, as well as speed skating. He also enjoed hunting. In Bradwardine, Jessie provided care for the sick, as well as maternity care, but also worked in the local gorcery and hardware store, and was Postmistress from 1969-1972. Jessie was active in her community as a member of the United Church, Forerester's Lodge, Hospital Guild, and 50 Plus Club. The couple moved to Hamiota in 1984, and then Rivers the following year. Jack and Jessie Blatchford had no children. Jack Blatchford died on November 7, 1992. Jessie Blatchford died on May 16, 2008. They are both buried in Saint Matthew Anglican Cemetery in Bradwardine, MB.
Custodial History
As part of the Westman Oral History Collection, this collection was accessioned by the McKee Archives in 1998. The original tapes from the Westman Oral History project were deposited in the Brandon Public Library. Copies of these originals were made by Margaret Pollex of the Brandon University Language Lab at the request of Eileen McFadden, University Archivist in the early 1990s. These copies compose the collection held in the McKee Archives.
Scope and Content
Item is an audiocassette tape containing an interview with Jack and Jessie Blatchford about early schooling and home nursing in the 1930s. The interviewer is Mrs. K. Cochrane.
Notes
History/bio information from the records, the Bradwardine local history and Jessie Blatchford's obituary. Transcript by Michyla Turnbull (2020). Description by Christy Henry.
Language Note
English
Audio Tracks
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Fred McGuinness’ broadcasting career began when he enrolled at St. Paul’s College, an affiliate of the University of Manitoba. In 1945, he became chairman of the Radio Subcommittee working as the Director of the University Radio Series where he was responsible (i.e., writing, casting, directing) for a half-hour Saturday afternoon radio programme.
McGuinness sold his first manuscript to the CBC in 1947, recording a 14-minute broadcast titled the “Class A Circuit” about the Royal American tour. The script was based on work McGuinness had done as a Director of Publicity and Exploitation (1947 to 1952) for the Royal American Shows while the show toured with the fairs on the Canadian prairies.
McGuinness began developing broadcast scripts in earnest for the CBC when he returned to Manitoba in 1966. By the 1970s, McGuinness was writing copy for CBC’s Radio Noon and Information Radio, as well as producing Ashgrove Farm, a CBC radio drama.
By 1980, McGuinness was hosting the CBC Radio broadcast Neighborly News from the Prairies. The radio program was cancelled by the CBC in 1983 after much outcry, but was resurrected with Altona broadcaster CFAM later that year with McGuinness at the helm. The radio show concluded its run in the summer of 1987.
In 1985, McGuinness returned to broadcast with the CBC and is popularly known for his “Manitoba Reports” that he delivered on CBC Radio’s Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He held his position as the prairie correspondent for 12 years. In the final three to four years of the Morningside show, McGuinness was asked to write non-political essays for broadcast. These “Letters Assignments” would be later published in 1999 by Great Plains Publishing as Letters from Section 17: A Collection of Morningside Essays.
Custodial History
Accession 1-2015 contains records created and collected over the course of McGuinness’ career as a radio broadcaster, newspaper journalist and freelance writer. The Estate of Fred McGuinness donated the materials to the SJ McKee Archives circa 2011. The Archives accessioned the records in 2015.
Scope and Content
Fred McGuinness was involved in a number of radio broadcasts in his life. The records in this subseries are the result of that work. The subseries contains drafts of possible broadcast scripts dating to the 1950s and early 1960s, drafts of CBC broadcast scripts for CBC’s Radio Noon, Information Radio, Ashgrove Farms radio drama, and Neighborly News from the Prairies. McGuinness appears to have annotated his scripts to reflect breathing, pauses, and other factors that could impact the delivery of his script on air.
The S.J. McKee Archives does not appear to have broadcast scripts pertaining to McGuinness’ CBC Morningside years.
Notes
Information for the history/biography was obtained from documents in the Radio broadcast script subseries (McG 6.1), McGuinness’ book Letters from Section 17 (published by Great Plains Publications in 1999), and his column “A Mourning Sigh for National Institution, “ Brandon Sun, May 29, 1997
Accruals
Closed
Finding Aid
A file level inventory is available
Storage Location
2015 accessions
Related Material
Fred McGuinness would write/publish about a topic in a number of forums. Therefore, it is possible materials pertaining to his broadcast career may be found in other series of the Fred McGuinness collection. McGuinness’ UofM student radio club certificates can be found in his scrapbook (McG 1.4). A sound recording of one of McGuinness’ UofM broadcasts can be found in McG 7
CBC Radio Archives - Morningside
Trent University, Peter Gzowski fonds (99-015)
Arrangement
Arrangement was artificially created by the Archives. Subseries has been re-arranged according to publication period
Artifact catalogue containing records from the excavation at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Spreadsheet containing information about the artifacts recovered, including: unit, level, artifact number, catalogue number, depth, co-ordinates, entry date, date recovered,count, weight, UTM co-ordinates, notes(excavators initials and comments) and artifact identification.
Artifact catalogue containing records from the excavation at Lovstrom Block H 1991.
Scope and Content
Spreadsheet containing information about the artifacts recovered, including: unit, level, artifact number, catalogue number, depth, co-ordinates, entry date, date recovered,count, weight, UTM co-ordinates, notes(excavators initials and comments) and artifact identification.
Field journals have been scanned in multi-page PDF files. Artifact catalogues are PDF files in spreadsheet format. Photographs are in jpeg format.
History / Biographical
Large scale excavations of two block sites took place in 1988 under the direction of Bev Nicholson with Brett Waddell as crew chief and Theresa Hill as assistant. Block H consisted of nine additional excavation units.
Scope and Content
Sub-sub-sub series contains: Summary information of field methology, number and co-ordinates of excavations, personnel and their staff position.
Field journals have been scanned in multi-page PDF files. Artifact catalogues are PDF files in spreadsheet format. Photographs are in jpeg format.
History / Biographical
Large scale excavations of four block sites took place in 1988 under the direction of Bev Nicholson with Ian Kuijt as crew chief. Block H consisted of eight excavation units.
Scope and Content
Sub-sub-sub series contains: Summary information of field methology, number and co-ordinates of excavations, personnel and their staff position.
Record of excavation unit 176 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 177 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 178 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 180 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 181 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 182 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 184 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 185 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 170 at Lovstrom Block E.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Record of excavation unit 172 at Lovstrom Block H.
Scope and Content
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
Site records of excavation units may include: level summaries, floor plans, feature sheets, wall profiles, unit summaries and any other additional information relating to the unit.
