Educator, publisher.
One of six children of Icelandic immigrants Oddny Hansina Asgeirson (1892-1972) and Jon Asgeirson (?-1957), she grew up in the west end of Winnipeg and attended Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute, later receiving a BA degree in Literature (1952) from the University of Manitoba. On 9 January 1954, she married John Lloyd Davidson Parr and they lived in London, England for two and one-half years before returning to Winnipeg to raise two daughters.
She taught in several rural school as well as Vincent Massey Collegiate, The Rehab Centre, the University of Manitoba, and the Adult Education Centre. In 1974, she founded Queenston House Publishing, thereby helping to launch the careers of many Manitoba writers and for which she was named a YWCA Woman of the Year (1981). In 1991, she started working for Hansard at the Manitoba Legislative Building.
She died at the Health Science Centre on 5 November 2001.
“Joan Asgeirson weds J. L. D. Parr,” Winnipeg Tribune, 11 January 1954, page 12.
Obituary [Oddny Hansina Asgeirson], Winnipeg Free Press, 4 December 1972, page 35.
“McTeer tells women unity vital for rights,” Winnipeg Free Press, 12 May 1981, page 2.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 7 November 2001.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 December 2024
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