Businessperson.
Born on a farm near Abernethy, Saskatchewan on 4 January 1904, second of seven children of Elizabeth Alexandra Dick and William Arthur Bearden, she was a piano teacher and Chautauqua performer before meeting and marrying businessman Adam Newton Leckie. They had no children. She helped to operate the stores of Robinson, Little and Company and, after her husband’s death in 1962, she became its President and General Manager, believed to be the first female President of a publicly owned company. In 1975, she was named one of Canada’s top 100 women, one of only two chosen from the business community. She served in the position until 1985. In retirement, she refurbished the Churchill’s Restaurant at the Marlborough Hotel where she had lived in its penthouse since 1976. She served on the Board of Governors for the University of Manitoba. She died at her Winnipeg residence on 29 April 1996 and was buried at Abernethy, Saskatchewan.
See also:
Manitoba Business: Robinson, Little and Company
Birth registration [Clarissa Celessta Bearden], Saskatchewan Vital Statistics.
“Clare Leckie’s inherited empire now a network of 200 stores,” Winnipeg Free Press, 21 May 1975, page 65.
“Clare Leckie named in 100,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 August 1975, page 24.
“Elegant eatery bailed out,” Winnipeg Free Press, 4 January 1986, page 2.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 May 1996, page 28.
This page was prepared by Heather Aldwyn and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 November 2025
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