Mary Grannan facts for kids

Mary Evelyn Grannan (born February 11, 1900 – died January 3, 1975) was a talented Canadian writer and radio star who created stories for kids. She wrote and performed in popular shows for children on CBC radio and CBC television from 1938 to 1962. Her most famous shows were Just Mary and Maggie Muggins. The stories from these shows later became popular books that many children loved to read.

Early Life and Education

Mary Grannan was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Her family was Irish Canadian and Roman Catholic. She was one of three daughters born to William Peter Grannan and Catherine Teresa Haney. Her father worked as a wheelwright (someone who builds and repairs wheels) and also as a firefighter.

Mary went to St. Dunstan's School, a Catholic elementary school, and then Fredericton High School. She later studied at the Provincial Normal School in Fredericton from 1917 to 1918. She graduated as a teacher, ready to start her career.

Becoming a Teacher and Radio Star

In 1919, Mary Grannan started teaching Grade 1 at the Devon Superior School. This school was in the town of Devon, right across the Saint John River from Fredericton. She taught there for 20 years. Mary was known for being a great storyteller. She also wrote and produced plays that her students performed.

Mary took private lessons to improve her speaking skills (called elocution). She also acted in local amateur theatre plays in Fredericton. In 1927, she studied art in Boston and later drew editorial cartoons for the Daily Gleaner newspaper in Fredericton.

In April 1936, while still teaching, Mary began broadcasting on CFNB, a local radio station in Fredericton. She had a funny show called Aggravating Agatha that became very popular in the area. The station tried to get the new Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to broadcast it across the country, but they weren't interested in that show.

However, the CBC was looking for more children's radio programs. Mary Grannan came up with the idea for her Just Mary show to fill this need. On this program, she read her own original stories for children. Just Mary first aired on CFNB in November 1937. The CBC then broadcast it on their eastern radio network during the summer and Christmas holidays in 1938.

Because of the success of Just Mary, the CBC offered her a full-time job in Toronto. She joined the CBC in July 1939, taking a year off from teaching. She officially stopped teaching in 1940 to focus on her radio career.

Mary Grannan's CBC Career

When Mary Grannan started at CBC radio in 1939, she was in charge of two weekly shows for children.

• Just Mary: This show was for younger children, aged four to eight. It aired on Sundays.
• The Children's Scrapbook: This was a half-hour show for older school-aged children. It aired on Saturday afternoons. This program had different kinds of content, like plays, interviews, and even live broadcasts from places like a zoo or a newspaper's printing press. Austin Willis was the announcer for both of Mary Grannan's shows.

The Children's Scrapbook stopped in 1946. Mary Grannan then created a new half-hour show called The Land of Supposing. This program featured her original stories, as well as classic fairy tales and folk tales. It ran from 1946 to 1948, and again in 1950.

The Maggie Muggins radio program started on January 1, 1948. It was based on Mary Grannan's book, also called Maggie Muggins, which came out in 1944. Unlike the Just Mary stories, Maggie Muggins had the same characters in every episode. By 1949, it was the most popular children's program in Canada. The radio series ended in June 1953. Maggie Muggins later became a television show in February 1955.

Mary Grannan retired from the CBC in 1960 when she turned 60, which was the mandatory retirement age for women at the time. She stayed in Toronto and continued to work on her two shows, Just Mary on radio and Maggie Muggins on television, as a freelancer. In April 1962, a new supervisor for children's programming was appointed, and both of her shows were cancelled.

Mary Grannan then moved back to Fredericton. She lived there with her two sisters until she passed away in 1975 from heart failure. In 1999, the family home where she lived was recognized as a New Brunswick Historic Site.

Becoming a Children's Book Author

Many fans wrote to the CBC asking for the Just Mary stories to be made into books. So, the CBC worked with a Canadian publisher, W.J. Gage & Company, to create Mary Grannan's first book. It was called Just Mary and had twelve stories. It was published in January 1941.

A second book, Just Mary Again, came out later in 1941. Both books sold out very quickly! A third book, Just Mary Stories: Combining Just Mary and Just Mary Again, was published in 1942. At first, Mary Grannan did not receive any money (called royalties) from her first three books. This was because the CBC believed they owned the copyright (the legal right to copy and sell the work) since she was their employee.

However, things changed. In 1944, a US publisher, G. P. Putnam's Sons, released an American version of Just Mary Stories. Also in 1944, the Canadian publisher Thomas Allen & Son Limited published Maggie Muggins, a collection of stories that had not been on the radio show. Mary Grannan received royalties from these books.

After discussions between lawyers for the CBC, Thomas Allen, and Mary Grannan, it was decided that Mary Grannan owned the copyright to her work. This meant she received royalties from all her future books. All her later books were published by Thomas Allen in Canada. These included more than 15 books in the Maggie Muggins series and several more Just Mary story collections.

Mary Grannan's books were very popular in Canada during the 1940s and 1950s. By 1947, the Just Mary books alone had sold 120,000 copies. By 1962, her total book sales were around 400,000 copies!

In 2018, Mary Grannan was named a National Historic Person. This means she is recognized as someone who made an important contribution to Canada's history.