WD-List: Citizen homage to Mildred MacDonald

Sat Jun 6 15:48:18 EDT 2009

Hi all,
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In case you missed this in the Saturday Citizen (below)...
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Voice for a generation
Obituary: Mildred MacDonald A longtime CBC broadcaster also 
served as a trailblazer in her field, writes Bruce Ward.
By Bruce War, The Ottawa CitizenJune 6, 2009

Mildred MacDonald joined the CBC in 1954 at a time when the 
public broadcaster did not hire women as full-time staffers. She did 
her final show in 2001.

Mildred MacDonald joined the CBC in 1954 at a time when the 
public broadcaster did not hire women as full-time staffers. She did 
her final show in 2001.
Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen

Beloved CBC broadcaster Mildred MacDonald had a wonderful light 
touch as an interviewer, a friendliness that put her subjects at ease 
whether they were royalty or rogues.

MacDonald, whose career at the CBC spanned 50 years, died 
Thursday in hospice after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

She was 81.

"She was a trooper," said Rob Clipperton, former radio host of In 
Town and Out, who worked with MacDonald for about 20 years.

Clipperton visited MacDonald the day before she died and said she 
was at peace in her final hours.

"Mildred once told me she was really a reporter who covered 
everything from murders to hockey games without knowing much 
about either," he said.

That remark was typical of MacDonald's breezy, down-to earth style 
-- one reason her listeners identified so strongly with her.

At the CBC, MacDonald worked on a total of 34 radio programs and 
five television shows, including 12 years as story editor on CBC-
TV's Marketplace. She also hosted Diplomatic Passport, a 1960s 
TV show that visited a different embassy each week.

MacDonald first worked at newspapers in Saskatchewan, where 
she was born. She began her broadcast career as a stringer at 
CHAB in Moose Jaw.

After an eight-month stint at Ottawa's CFRA, she joined the CBC in 
1954. She was 24. At the time, CBC did not hire women as full-time 
staffers. Although the corporation has long since changed its hiring 
policy, MacDonald kept her freelance status throughout her long 
association with CBC, and always worked on contract.

One of her first assignments was covering the Queen Mother's visit 
to Ottawa that November. To her surprise, she was presented to the 
Queen Mother at a press reception at Government House. But 
Macdonald was not at a loss for words, as she recounted in a 
column she wrote for the Citizen in 2000.

"I told her how Great Aunt Meg, who was her cook when she was 
Duchess of York, and whom I had visited in England the year 
before, always referred to her as 'my little Duchess' even after she 
became Queen and then Queen Mother.

"She gave me one of her sweetest smiles, inclined her head to one 
side, and said softly, 'Oh how lovely! We were at White Lodge then, 
the children (now the Queen and her sister, Princess Margaret) 
were small, and it was the happiest time of our lives."

When Duke Ellington came to Ottawa in 1968, Macdonald was 
assigned to interview him for national radio. She met him at a 
rehearsal at the old Capital Theatre on Bank Street. Ellington was 
clearly taken with her, although she was married with a young 
daughter.

"When I said my name, he smiled and said, 'Mildred, yes the name 
makes me think of this.' And off he went, playing something lush 
and romantic," she told Citizen reporter Doug Fischer, who wrote a 
profile of the jazz great in 1999.

Ellington invited her to a post-concert party, which she declined. 
Then Ellington called her the next day from Montreal, urging her to 
join him there.

"The reporter in me wanted to do so badly, but the woman in me 
knew I couldn't go alone," she said.

For the second time in a day, she had spurned Ellington's 
advances.

MacDonald influenced many female broadcasters who followed her 
into radio.

"She broke the trails for women, but was never strident about her 
contribution," said Laurie Fagan, a CBC reporter on Ontario Today 
who worked with MacDonald on the In Town and Out program.

"She was such a gracious woman who loved, as she used to tell 
me, 'The sigh, tear or laugh in people as they told their stories on 
radio.'

"She knew how to get people to open up. Even the reluctant, 
because she made them feel so at ease.

"I know when people listen to her old tape they are shocked that she 
was commenting on the Queen Mum's outfit, but they don't realize 
that was 55 years ago ... live events and news gathering was totally 
different."

One constant throughout MacDonald's career was her boundless 
enthusiasm for stories, and her genuine interest in the lives of 
people she was interviewing.

Moments after her final broadcast on CBC in 2001, she spoke to a 
Citizen reporter about the changes in broadcasting over the span of 
her career. The editing she once did by slicing audiotape with a 
razor blade is now done digitally on a computer. But she was never 
comfortable with the ultra-adversarial journalism now commonplace 
in the media .

"I don't like this attack style, where you pin him to the wall and go for 
the jugular," she said.

Near the end of the final show, host Rob Clipperton read a message 
"from one broadcaster to another," that was particularly touching.

"Dear Mildred," it began, "You lead the way for all of us. This 
celebration in your honour reminds everyone of the progress we 
have made. Five decades ago, a woman pursuing a career in 
broadcasting and writing asserted a hunger to excel, an unshakable 
belief in one's self.

"When you worked on that first major assignment travelling with the 
Queen Mother, you recorded not only the visit of a member of the 
Royal Family, your presence announced new scope and sweep to 
all women in our profession."

The message was from Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, a former 
CBC journalist.

MacDonald was married to Larry MacDonald, a CBC broadcaster in 
the early days of television who died in 1998. They had one child, 
Alexandra.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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This story also has a photo which you can see at:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Entertainment/Voice+generation/1669
161/story.html

Mildred MacDonald joined the CBC in 1954 at a time when the 
public broadcaster did not hire women as full-time staffers. She did 
her final show in 2001.
Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen, The Ottawa Citizen
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Best!

-pwm
aka Patrick Meikle 
"The Connector" Moderator - Writers' Deadline!!
Listserv Ottawa Writing Resources:
http://www.anabelassociates.com/writing-ottawa.shtml
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