In Memoriam: Joan Latimer – A strong and independent woman remembered

By SHEILA BLINOFF

Joan Latimer, the editor of this paper from 1973 to 1994, died in Collingwood on Nov. 11.

I was able to speak to my friend a few days earlier, and recall bygone times. I thanked her for being a mentor to me and to others. “I always tried to be a good teacher,” said Joan, who was born in 1931 and grew up the Beach community.

By December, 1972 the paper, then known as Ward 9 Community News, appeared to be on its last legs. The small staff that nursed it through its first year, were burned out and moved on.

Before leaving, they applied for a federal government grant under the Local Initiatives Program. This became available on March 1st 1973 to run for four months, and was later extended to the end of August.

A committee, which included Joan, took over and hired a staff of three at $100 a week each. As stipulated in the application, there would be a business manager, a distribution manager, and a co-ordinator of volunteers. Revenue would come through a commissioned advertising salesperson.

There was no provision for a paid editor, a role that could be filled by a volunteer! Joan, who was a journalism graduate from Ryerson P.I., and had recently been working from home writing the T. Eaton Company’s employees’ newsletter, stepped up.

I met Joan when she was on the committee that hired me to be the business manager. By May 1973 there was a change in staff. I was now in charge of the grant, and was able to hire Joan as a paid editor.

When the grant ended in August, the paper had once again run out of money as any profits that it had earned had to be returned to the government. However, we now had some practical expertise to build on.
Joan suggested that since we both had husbands who would support us and our children, we two were in a position to continue working on the paper without pay until the next grant. This was a crucial moment in the Ward 9 News’ survival. There were also many others who took on smaller tasks to help us keep the paper viable.

Six months later it became apparent that there would be no more grants, so Joan led our deputation of two to the newspaper board asking for a solution. The board organized a fundraiser. The carriers went door-to-door on their routes asking each household for a two-dollar donation. They collected $6,000, and we were back to being paid.

In time, under Joan’s editorship, the paper flourished.

The number of pages, advertising, circulation and readers grew. The staff increased to five. Joan used to say, “We’re the only game in town.”

We were unique as a non-partisan, not-for-profit newspaper that was now covering all its costs. We had the infamous Waiting List. We had so many advertisers waiting a couple of issues until we could find room for them, and still maintain a balance between news and advertising. (Yes, we did increase the number of pages.) How times have changed in the print world!

Joan felt that readers had more trust in what was published in their community paper than in any other media. Therefore, we had to be vigilant in protecting them from scams and misinformation.

The story that is making me laugh out loud as I write this is the one about the Australian Fruit Cake.
A man came to the office carrying a seven-foot cylindrical musical wind instrument. He wanted Joan to publish his cake recipe but to leave out a vital ingredient so that readers would phone him and pay him to divulge what was missing. I can still hear her voice – what a way she had with words: “I cannot tantalize our readers this way. Now leave, and take that didgeridoo with you.”

Joan was an alpha woman with an A-type personality, decisive, quick thinking and with strong opinions.
Her vocabulary was extensive and her writing crisp, although she had an aversion to commas. She tried to eliminate them as she felt they slowed down the word flow. We had spirited discussions on this as I was one of her proofreaders.

Her conversations were peppered with wit and humour. She adored puns and many ended up in headlines. Some of the best were not for publication.

She was against the use of a thesaurus, claiming that it encouraged the misuse of words by those who did not understand nuances. If there was a Roget’s in the newspaper office, it was hidden from view.

From the time Ward 9 News was founded and during Joan’s tenure, there were important local issues such as the proposed Scarborough Expressway, for which there was almost universal opposition in our catchment area. There were many stories on such topics submitted and printed. Joan’s theory was that if you kept hitting people on the head with a hammer, they soon lose interest.

There had to be something for everyone, and some levity. She had a couple of photographs which she used as fillers, chortling as she wrote new cutlines. One was a cat with rimless glasses reading a copy of Ward 9 News. The other was a golden retriever sitting in my chair, its paws on my Selectric keyboard and staring at a story on canines in the Beach.

Another of her characters was El Muncho, the paper’s anonymous restaurant reviewer, only identified in a photo with a brown paper bag over the head, and holding a knife and fork ready for action. El Muncho received a meal paid for by the paper, and in return wrote a review.

Once El Muncho was greedy and then went back for a second supper, and submitted another invoice. Joan was outraged as a guardian of the paper’s finances. She also felt our columnist was already overweight, and made El Muncho pay for himself. Or was it a herself?

A popular feature she introduced was the “What is it?” This was a highly-magnified shot of a household item (toothbrush bristles, fork tines, a broccoli floret, etc.). The part that Joan liked best was writing a cutline where she included phrases and puns to help solve the puzzle. Often the correct answers were sent in by children who would have no idea of her wit, but could recognize the picture better than many adults.

Joan was a longtime Beacher, and for her it was definitely Beach not Beaches. She was the third of five generations of her family to live in a house on Nursewood Road, looking out on the Waterworks. She attended Balmy Beach and Williamson Road schools, and Malvern C.I.

She was a teenage page at the Beaches Library, and later a member of the Kew Beach Bible Club. There, as well as spiritual guidance there was lots of socializing, and many members in the 1950s and 1960s met their future spouses, including Joan.

She was a keen skier, cyclist, swimmer and curler, a member of the Beaches Ski Club, the Royal Canadian Curling Club, and at times Variety Village. In 1997 she was inducted into the Beach Roll of Honour in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a Beach resident.

After 22 years as editor, Joan retired in 1994. She moved downtown for a while and then to a condo in the Collingwood Shipyards, not far from Craigleith where she had earlier spent many weekends and summers in a family ski chalet.

She continued her active life biking the Georgian Trail, swimming, playing bridge, joining Probus and book clubs, never missing an Elvis Festival, and delighting in the lives of her grandchildren.

Joan was in good shape and spirits until August when she fell and broke her hip. Her health rapidly declined. She will be remembered as a strong and independent woman who did it her way, and a friend and inspiration to many.

Our condolences go out to family and those who were fortunate to call her a friend.

Rest in Peace, Joan.