McKinney, Louise Crummy

Louise Cinthia Crummy, 1868-1931, was born in Ontario. She graduated from the Ottawa Normal School in 1886, and taught in schools near the family farm for six years. In 1892 she moved to North Dakota, USA. Here she continued to teach, became involved in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and met James McKinney, a farmer. Louise and James married in 1896. They had one son, Willard. The McKinneys moved to Claresholm, Alberta in 1903, and remained there for the rest of their lives.

Louise immediately organized the WCTU, a group which promoted prohibition. She was provincial president, 1908-1931, and vice-president of the Dominion WCTU, 1909-1931. She successfully ran as a Non-Partisan League candidate in 1917 provincial election and sat in the Legislature until 1920. She was the first woman elected to a Canadian legislative body. In 1929 she was one of Alberta's "Famous Five" (Famous 5) who led the movement to have women recognized as persons. In 1939 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated McKinney as a National Historic Person.

For further information see Nancy M. Sheehan's article, "Achieving Personhood : Louise McKinney and the WCTU in Alberta" in Resources for Feminist Research. -- Fall 1980, p. 105-108; Anne White's article, "Louise Crummy McKinney (1868-1931) : A Window into Western Canadian Christianity", in Canadian Society of Church History, Historical Papers, 2000, p. 131-143; and Eliane Leslau Silverman "Louise McKinney", Canadian Encyclopedia [online].