Educator.
Born at Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1902, daughter of Mary Ann Farnie (1872-1945) and Duncan Farnie (1872-1957), she accompanied her family to Canada in 1906 where, by 1916, they resided at Oak Lake. She won the Governor General’s Medal (1917) for the Oak Lake District and graduated from the Brandon Normal School, teaching at Prairie Rose School (?-?) and working alongside her sister Ann Valentine “Anne” Farnie (1898-1973) at Elkhorn School (1920-1924) and Oakwood School (1925-1926). While at Elkhorn, she met local farmer Francis Edward “Frank” Watson (1894-1965) and, on 13 November 1926, they married at Brandon. They had two daughters, Marian Watson and Frances Watson, and farmed at Elkhorn until Frank’s retirement in 1956, after which they moved to Winnipeg. She taught at Balmoral School (1953-1955) and in the Seven Oaks School Division, including at Forest Park School (?-?) and served as Principal of Templeton School (1965-1966). She died at the Health Sciences Centre on 7 January 1993.
1916 Canada census, Library and Archives Canada.
Marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registrations [Ann Valentine Shearer], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
“The City [Miss Jean Farnie],” Brandon Daily Sun, 1 October 1917, page 10.
Obituary [Frank Watson], Winnipeg Tribune, 1 April 1965, page 30.
Death notice, Winnipeg Free Press, 8 January 1993, page C7.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 9 January 1993, page D8.
Winnipeg estate files (ATG 0025A), PR93-01-28908 - Jean McWatters Watson, Archives of Manitoba.
Henderson’s Winnipeg and Brandon Directories, Henderson Directories Limited, Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries.
King family tree, Ancestry.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer.
Page revised: 16 October 2022
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