McAnn, Aida (Flemming)

  • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida_McAnn_Flemming
  • Wiki Biography:
    • Aida Maud Boyer McAnn Flemming, CM (7 March 1896 – 25 January 1994) was a Canadian teacher, writer and animal welfare advocate. She founded the Kindness Club, a humane education organization for children between the ages of 5 and 13. She was the wife of Hugh John Flemming, who was Premier of New Brunswick from 8 October 1952 to 11 July 1960.
    • Her father was Charles Whitfield McAnn. Originally from Kent County, New Brunswick, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Michigan. After practising law in Moncton, New Brunswick, he moved to Kaslo, British Columbia, with his wife, the former Ada Boyer.
    • Aida McAnn began her working life as a teacher, first at Mount Allison University, where she taught English and History, and later at Dongan Hall, a private secondary school in New York City where she taught English, Latin, History and Current Events in 1930 and 1931. She worked as a freelance writer of advertising copy in New York before returning to New Brunswick where she worked as a writer for the department of Tourism for nine years. In 1938 she published a cookbook entitled The New Brunswick Cookbook. 
    • She founded the Kindness Club, a club to teach children between the ages of 5 and 13 to love and be kind to animals, in 1959. The organization grew rapidly, reaching 2000 members in over 100 chapters in North America and England by 1961. She remained closely involved with the Kindness Club, whose headquarters were at her home in Fredericton. By the late 1960s she regularly received up to 50 letters a day from club members, which she answered on her own until the organization hired a secretary to help with the correspondence in 1973.
  • Second Great Granddaughter to United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=786
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158855089/aida_maud_boyer-flemming