Dickson and Leslie Family Histories
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and. He also preached at the Manhattan Avenue Baptist Church, and for a while he wrote news for the Canadian Press. Meanwhile becoming known as one of Canada's major poets, a founding member of the famous Song Fishermen, Kenneth Leslie also won the Governor General's Award for poetry in Canada in 1938 for his book By Stubborn Stars. Kenneth Leslie, center, with two other contemporary Canadian poets, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, left, and Bliss Carmen, right. Some of the Leslie children had bronchitis so his father-in-law, James Moir, sent the family to Ashville, North Carolina, then Summerville, South Carolina where the girls had ponies to ride, and eventually to the Swiss Alps, via Paris, and to St-Martin-d'Uriage near Grenoble where Kenneth Leslie studied French at the Sorbonne University. After a brief stint at the local school, his daughters were placed in a French Roman Catholic Convent in Nice, and later the four children were left with a governess in a chalet in Switzerland while their parents toured around Europe. t. On their return from Europe, the Leslies lived in Washington, D.C. where the children were placed in the Maret French School, and later returned to Halifax, moving in with the Moirs at 103 Inglis Street, from where Kenneth was called to assist Rev. Albert B. Cohoe once more, this time at the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey. While the family was in Montclair, Irish sculptor, poet and playwright Seamas O'Brien came to dinner and stayed for a year. Other frequent long-term house guests included Liam Fitzgibbon who taught all the children Irisih jigs, reels and hornpipes, Kenneth's sister Marjorie, brother Robert, and transient ministers and priests. Beth stuck with Kenneth through his many adventures, providing moral and financial support for whatever he wanted to accomplish. One of his crusades was to revive the Gaelic language, first in Halifax, then Cape Breton, and later in New York City. He had a radio program on station WOR, Newark, New Jersey, with Gaelic songs as well as violin music, poetry, and stories, performed by him, his daughters, and Beth at the piano. He did a club and resort circuit bringing Gaelic culture to the stage, including Scottish and Irish dancing by the daughters, dressed in ethnic costumes manufactured by their mother. Wherever they went, members of the audience would stay on after the concert, mesmerized by Ken's charm, as he continued reading his poetry into the night, long after Beth and the children had retired. After Montclair, they moved to Manhattan where Kenneth Leslie published The Protestant Digest, with an editorial board of prominent church people. By 1934 his marriage was over. In 1936 the divorce was official. Beth continued to live in New York City with her children, becoming the confidante of a wide circle of friends. She was elected president of the New York Women's Canadian Club with offices in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, performed official duties on behalf of the Canadian community in the City, entertained Canadians who visited New York, including the then Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Hon. William Lyon McKenzie King. Beth's close friends were politicians, playwrights, musicians, opera singers, actors and scientists and she helped many young Canadians who came to New York. A consummate student, Beth Leslie read five New York newspapers every day, continued to play the piano, keeping up with the latest popular music all her life, and also able to charm her peers by playing and singing the songs of earlier times. She loved the theatre, rarely missed a Broadway play, and always intended to write one. A novel, too, was in her long range plan, but her time ran out before she reached the old age during which she intended to embark on these projects. Beth was actively interested in the occult, astral travel, reincarnation, and extra-sensory perception. She studied oil painting with the New York Art Students' League. After several heart attacks, one of which occurred in Sweden, forcing her to remain there for a year recuperating, she eventually succumbed, at the age of 57, while on a visit to Rochester, New York. The funeral was from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Manhattan, and burial was in the Friends Cemetery in Westbury, Long Island. Beth Moir Leslie will always be remembered as a brilliant and elegant person. Kenneth Leslie wrote hundreds of poems to her, for her, and about her. He insisted to his dying day that all of his poetry was inspired by Beth. For ten years he published the Protestant Digest, complete sets of which are in the Nova Scotia Archives and in the Dalhousie University Library, in Halifax. The purpose of the magazine was to expose and condemn injustice. One of his highly controversial projects was the Textbook Commission to remove anti-semitism from the text books of the United States. A commanding figure and spell-binding speaker, Kenneth Leslie called the shots as he saw them, treading on the toes of many people in high places. On the editorial board of his magazine were the great liberals of the day, writing hard-hitting criticism. Eventually he had offended so many established politicians that he was labelled as a fellow-traveller, and, along with such liberals as Charlie Chaplin, Leonard Bernstein, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller and many others, was advised by friends to leave the United States. To prevent the McCarthy Commission from destroying him, his family and his associates, he returned to Canada. After Beth divorced him, Kenneth Leslie undertook two more marriages and divorces, suffered a stroke which left him partially paralyzed, struggled to a complete recovery, and drove to California to marry Nora, the widow of his friend, Judge Steenerson. They lived in Pictou, then Halifax, where he died October 7, 1974 and is buried in the Leslie plot, Fairview Cemetery, Halifax. Kenneth Leslie's writings, political activism, and private life, continue to intrigue students of Canadian literature. His poetry is in most Canadian anthologies. Kenneth Leslie and Beth (Moir) Leslie had four children: 1. Gloria Elizabeth Leslie, born October 14, 1917, commenced her schooling in Halifax, staying with the Moirs and attending the Sacred Heart Convent and then Halifax Ladies College where she was later joined by her sisters, while their parents and baby brother were still on the farm in Granville. Her schooling continued in France, Switzerland, Canada, Montclair, New Jersey, New York City, Guilford College, North Carolina, study towards her Master's at Middlebury, Vermont. Several years later she completed her Master's, cum laude, at Laval University in Quebec City. Meanwhile, after a few years working in New York City, on November 12, 1942 at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, she married John McHugh of Ireland and became an army follower until he went overseas. On his return they lived at Old Greenwich, Conn, Hyde Park, Cambridge, Boston and Norwood Massachusetts, and had four children. Then they were separated and Gloria went to Rochester, New York with the children. Throughout these travels, Gloria was impressed with the prevalence and varieties of prejudice. This gave a definite orientation to the whole of her life and led to her becoming a Bah‡'i. 1.1 Br’gid McHugh, born April 18, 1944, was the first white graduate of a black high school in the United States and graduated as the only white student from Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee. Brigid was active in the civil rights marches in the States. A Baha'i pioneer and an Icelandic citizen, she is married to Arthur Wendover. Their adopted daughter is: 1.1.1 Dagbjšrt D’pa, born August16, 1985, in Sri Lanka. 1.2 Dermot McHugh, born December 26, 1946, is an agronomist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture at IRA Banbui, married to Anita James. He is a Bah‡'i pioneer, first in Za•re and now in Camaroon. Their daughter and two sons are: 1.2.1 Mwangaza Munirih McHugh, born January 31, 1974. 1.2.2 Oloro Vahid McHugh, born November 30, 1976. 1.2.3 Amani Nabil McHugh, born July 12, 1979. 1.3 Conal McHugh, born November 9, 1948, computer programmer, in Lexington, Kentucky, married to Barbara Pickering. 1.4 Neil McHugh, born October 1, 1951, a professor of African and Near Eastern History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, married to Messel Mehari of Ethiopa, now living in Durango, Colorado. He was a pioneer Bah‡'i in Sudan, Chad, and now in Colorado. Their son and daughter are: 1.4.1 Aman McHugh, born February 20, 1980. 1.4.2 Fana McHugh, born September 1984. Gloria's second husband was Ernest Wenk of Switzerland, whom she married on December 26, 1955, near Rochester, New York. It was also his second marriage and he had, with him, two children with his former wife. They moved their families to Arizona where they learned about cactus, cowboys, horses, tarantulas, Spanish architecture and the value of water in the desert. Their son is: 1.5 Stefen Wenk, born October 12, 1957, married to Lucille Alexandra Lee, lives in Davis, California. 1.5.1 Lucienne Camille Lee Wenk, born April 29, 1979. Gloria divorced Ernest Wenk and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, taught school, took part in integration activities, and became active in the Bah‡'i faith. In 1962 she started Bah‡'i pioneering, which has taken her to Butte, Montana, QuŽbec City, the Magdalene Islands, Cape Breton, and finally St-Pierre where she now lives. St-Pierre is the largest island of St-Pierre et Miquelon, a small French archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off the south coast of Newfoundland. Later moved to California to live with her son Stefen where she died c. 1993. 2. Kathleen Moira Leslie, a teacher, born January 27, 1920, B.A. Guilford College, North Carolina, where she was May Queen and a prominent member of the Guiford College Acapella Choir. On May 17, 1941, she married George Ritchie Latham II, a lumber company owner and manager, of Long Island, New York. 2.1 George Ritchie Latham III, born March 8, 1942, d. April 18,1943. 2.2 David Moir Latham, born February 14, 1944, married Arleen Trent, divorced ten years later. David runs a transport company. 2.2.1 Joseph Virgil Latham, born December 6, 1973. 2.2.2 Daniel Peter Latham, born June 15, 1975. 2.2.3 Christine Elizabeth Latham, February 4, 1980. 2.3 Priscilla Jane Latham, born December 3, 1946. 2.3.1 Jennifer Latham Jamieson, November 11, 1971. 2.4 James Putnam Latham, born January 21, 1949, married to Patricia Gillespie. He has a lumber company. 2.4.1 Thomas Edwards Latham, March 10,1978. 2.4.2 Emily Hartnett Latham, born January 29, 1980. 2.4.3 Sarah Leslie Latham, born December 3, 1981. 2.4.4 Mary Agnes Latham, born February 3, 1987. 2.5 Elizabeth Leslie Latham, born May 14, 1953, married John Pierce Bashaw, born March 20, 1954. 2.5.1 James Alexander Bashaw, June 28, 1986. 2.5.2 Catherine Elizabeth Bashaw, April 14, 1988. 3. Rosaleen Diana Leslie born July 2, 1922. See Dickson-Leslie. 4. Kenneth Alexander Leslie (Sandy), born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, January 8, 1926, name was changed to Alexander Moir Leslie when he was ten. He attended private schools, served in the U.S. Army, studied at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, and Guilford College, North Carolina (B.A.), wrote for magazines and newspapers in the U.S., maintained a tutorial service in New York City, and died of a heart attack c. 1985. Download 270.35 Kb. Share with your friends:
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