Journalist, author.
Born at Bowsman on 11 February 1958, one of four children of Naomi Catherine Bradley (1920-1997) and Daniel Othneil Tennison (1907-1964), her father died when she was six years old and her family moved to Swan River where she graduated from Swan Valley Regional Secondary School. She then moved to Ottawa and held a number of jobs to support her attendance at Carleton University. Her writing career began at Grain News in Winnipeg then moved to the Dufferin Valley Leader at Carman (circa 1984). She was an announcer at CFAM Radio in Altona, a writer with WECD Communicator magazine in Brandon (circa 1988), and a communications specialist with the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. After marrying Robert “Bob” Whitelaw, she moved with him to Aurora, Ontario and did freelance writing. After her husband’s death, she returned to Winnipeg and published a memoir tribute to her mother entitled Naomi’s Houses prior to her accidental death on 22 November 2025. She was buried in the Bowsman Cemetery.
Obituary [Naomi Catherine Tennison], Swan Valley Star and Times, 19 February 1997, page 10.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 13 December 2025.
Obituary, Interlake Cremation & Memorial Services.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 13 January 2026
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