Life History

Other facts

Notes

• [Good Robinson Ritchie Lee et al.FTW]
  
  
  High School Graduate(Ottawa Collegiate) in 1927
  Graduated Ottawa Normal School in 1930
  Taught school in Ottawa until abt 1939
  Moved to Noranda P.Q. following marriage Sept 1939
  Went back to teaching in Noranda in 1957.
  
  She always taught young children in primary/elementary schools mainly grade one. We all remember our "Grade One" teachers and the impact they had on our young lives.
  A quote from the 1935 Diamond Jubilee Reunion program of the Ottawa Normal School reads:
  "Of the hundreds of women trained in the school it was natural that, after a few years service as teachers, they should marry and help to establish homes. Their influence, as mothers and citizens, on the social and cultural life of Eastern Ontario, was in no small degree owing to the inspiration and training received in the Ottawa Normal School."
  
  Marguerite, or "Peggy" as she was known to everyone, continued teaching in Noranda until about 1972, & retired & moved to London,Ont.
  
  She was a strong-willed woman and very set in her ways, but nevertheless had a very kindly nature and was held in very high regard by her students and her peers.
  
  Extracts from several letters written to her sons at the time of her death speak volumes:
  
  "Your mother was a very special lady. Her devotion to her pupils was an example to all. They loved and trusted her as she wisely guided them through their first school year. It was a pleasure to work with Marguerite.. She was cheerful and generous, always willing to do more than her share to help in the school"
  - Emily Burritt
  
  "...she always was a good friend and I appreciated having her as a friend and several times asked her to befriend people who had recently taken up residence in London and she was always willing to do what she could....
  -Jean Johncox
  
  "What a vibrant and cheerful person your mother was, and how she loved children as they did her. Nothing ever got her down, and it was a privilege to have known her for so long".
  -Roxie Joy Hosking
  
  AND......from one of her former students :
  
  "I remember your Mom really fondly - - she was my first teacher and my best........she was a terrific teacher, and I loved her to pieces"
  -Christie Blatchford (now a columnist for the Toronto Globe & Mail)
  
  Christie Blatchford also wrote about Marguerite Lee (Devenney) in a couple of columns , quoting from  one written in the Toronto Sun October 28, 1997 :
  "...Mrs. Lee was the most magical person in the world, and my heart would lift at the very sound of her voice. She taught me to read, she was the first non-relative I remember whose approval I craved; I would have barked at hubcaps for her".