Educator, author.
Born at Gimli on 4 December 1914, daughter of Olina Jonsson (1880-1974) and Gisli Benson (1886-1971), she attended the Gimli Public School and Winnipeg Normal School (1935). She taught at Minerva School (1935-1937) and the Gimli Public School (1938-1947), retired from teaching to raise a family, and returned to teaching in 1963 until retirement in 1979.
Her novel Tanya was written “between the ironing board and the kitchen stove.” Set in the Interlake region of Manitoba, it was submitted for the Ryerson fiction contest. Although it did not win, Ryerson encouraged her to revise it for publication and it appeared in 1951. She continued to write and to translate, but the promised second novel, “Jorunn,” was never published.
On 3 August 1945, she married Harold Christopher Kristofferson (1921-1989) and they had four children. She served as a trustee for the Evergreen School Division and was a member of the Gimli Heritage Committee, playing a key role in the restoration of the Gimli Public School and Gimli Unitarian Church.
She died at Gimli on 5 April 1996. Her papers are at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.
Marriage registration [Kina Ingiuldur Johnson, Gisli Benson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Gudrun Kristin Benson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Olina Benson], Winnipeg Free Press, 10 September 1974, page 23.
Obituary [Harold Christopher Kristofferson], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 April 1989, page 42.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 8 April 1996, page 13.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 31 October 2022
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