Museums celebrate 100th birthday of poet and playwright Jamie Reaney

Mrs. Wilma McCaig, Jamie Reaney’s sister, was part of the Crerar family reunion in August at the Brocksden School Museum, northwest of Shakespeare on the 2nd Concession (Line 37, Vivian Line). She is seen with the museum’s 1909 class photo, which is above the school’s back entrance door. Wilma’s mother, Elizabeth Henrietta Crerar, then aged 10, is third from the left in the back row. In her 20s, Elizabeth Crerar married James N. Reaney. Their son became the famous poet and playwright James Crerar (Jamie) Reaney, who would have turned 100 in September.

By: Gary West

The Brocksden School Museum has long educated many young students in North Easthope Township, but earlier this week, it was more than just a school museum.

Many groups and organizations use the school and its grounds for camps, family reunions, hands-on demonstrations, and interesting displays, to name a few.

If you are a historian of sorts, the name Jamie Reaney will be familiar.

He was a very important poet and playwright in his day and lived on his ancestral farm in South Easthope Township, near Stratford and what’s known as the Little Lakes in Perth County, east of the city.

To add to this historical story, the Times spoke with Kelly McIntosh, managing director of the Stratford-Perth Museum.

The museum celebrated the centenary birthday of James Crerar (Jamie) Reaney on what would have been his 100th birthday on Sept. 1.

Reaney was one of Canada’s most celebrated and influential poets, playwrights and writers, born and raised on a small farm in southern Perth County near Stratford.

McIntosh said they were deeply honoured to welcome Jamie’s family: his son, James Stewart Reaney; his daughter, Susan Reaney, with partner Ian Chung; James’s wife, Susan Wallace; and their daughter, Elizabeth.

The guest of honour was Jamie Reaney’s sister, Wilma McCaig.

That day at the museum, according to McIntosh, “there were so many voices filling the room with stories, history, readings and joyous recollections of Jamie Reaney’s life, and his remarkable legacy.”

Dorothy Chamberlain gave an intriguing presentation on Jamie’s history and his life at the family farmhouse, while Susan Reaney’s reading from biographical material about her father was deeply moving to the crowd on Sept. 1 at the museum.

The Stratford-Perth Museum continues to bring important historical moments to area residents interested in the stepping stones that make the Stratford and Perth County areas unique in their own theatrical and historical ways.