Educator, municipal politician.
Born at Winnipeg on 4 May 1898, daughter of Harriet T. Holmes (1860-1957) and locomotive engineer Robert W. Emerson (1859-1906), she lived at La Riviere from 1900 to 1906, when her father was killed in a railway accident, and her family returned to Winnipeg. She taught at Tremaine School (1916-1917) before returning to Winnipeg where she taught at Cecil Rhodes School (1917-1922), Norquay School (1922-1923), exchange in London, England (1923-1924), Victoria School (1924-1928), Somerset School (?-?), and Hugh John Macdonald School (1930-1934).
On 29 September 1934, she married widower Ernest Robert Tennant (1877-1975) at Winnipeg and adopted his two children. She served for six years on the Winnipeg School Board and for 10 years as an alderwoman on the Winnipeg City Council. She was Deputy Mayor in 1964-1965. She retired in 1967 and became the first female member of the Bible Society Board. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Save The Children Fund. In 1968, she was given a Manitoba Golden Boy Award for meritorious service to Manitoba.
She died at Winnipeg on 13 April 1989 and was buried in the Elmwood Cemetery.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Blair House (25 West Gate, Winnipeg)
Birth registration [Edith Irene Emerson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1901 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
“Engineer Emerson killed at Snowflake,” Manitoba Free Press, 9 January 1906, page 3.
Marriage registration [Edith Irene Emerson, Ernest Robert Tennant], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Birthdays,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 April 1956, page 11.
“Mrs. R. W. Emerson dies at age of 97,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 October 1957, page 25.
“10 Manitobans get Golden Boy Awards,” Winnipeg Free Press, 4 November 1968.
Obituary [Ernest Robert Tennant], Winnipeg Free Press, 11 January 1975, page 39.
Turning Leaves: A History of La Riviere and District by La Riviere Historical Book Society, 1979, pages 144-145.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 April 1989.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 10 September 2023
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