Mary Travers(1894-1941)

Mary-Rose-Anne Travers was born 4 June 1894 in Newport, Gaspésie in Québec. Born into a large family of Irish (Lawrence Travers) and French Canadian (Adéline Cyr) descent, he left home at 13 to earn her living in Montreal. A gifted child, she had learned easily to play the violin, the harmonica, the button accordion, and the jew's-harp. To pay for her trip to Montreal she played the violin in the main street of Newport while selling Red Pills - a patent medicine. In Montreal she worked at first as a domestic, then married Édouard Bolduc, a plumber, on 17 Aug 1914 and raised a large family. She began to perform publicly out of economic necessity.

After she accompanied the singer Ovila Légaré in a recording session, she was recommended to Conrad Gauthier, organizerof the Veillées du bon vieux temps at the Monument National. She was engaged at first as a violoneuse, but in 1927 Gauthier encouraged her to sing for the first time in public. Such was her success that Gauthier suggested that she compose some songs. Though she was scarcely known, her recordings of 'La Cuisinière' and 'La Servante,' issued on a Starr 78, quickly sold some 12,000 copies - a success unprecedented in Quebec at the time. There followed other songs and recordings which enjoyed great popularity because of their humour, frankness, and inimitable style of embellishment, with 'turlutages' or comic ritornelles produced by clicking the tongue against the palate. She performed tirelessly in Canada and the USA and continued to record, completing 85 songs on 43 78s for the Starr label before her death. Apex and MCA Coral have reissued many of her songs.

This likeable, joyous, and dynamic woman, composed her songs as she lived, wilfully, intuitively, guided by an uncommon sense of observation. She was Canada's first chansonnière in the true sense of the word, in that her verses deal with real life and, seen as a whole, reflect vividly the particular climate of the 1930s in Quebec. The daily problems and the material difficulties of ordinary people are reflected in her songs: 'Le Commerçant des rues,' 'L'Enfant volé,' 'Les Cinq Jumelles,' 'Les Colons canadiens,''La Grocerie du coin,' 'Les Agents d'assurance,' 'Les Conducteurs de chars,' and others.

In 1937, Mary and her troop members were victims of a car accident in the parish of Sacré-Coeur, near Rimouski. The singer survives with a double fracture of the right leg, broken nose, strong bruises and a concussion. She cancels the current tour, but decides to honor the contracts of the actors. As for the rest, she will suffer from aphasia and loss of memory for two long years, which affects her career. She died on February 20, 1941 at the age of 46 following cancer.