JONI MITCHELL – THE COE HILL CONNECTION
On Wednesday March 1, 2023 Grammy Award winner Joni Mitchell received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in Washington, D.C. This award “celebrates the work of an artist whose career reflects the influence, impact and achievement in promoting song as a vehicle of musical expression and cultural understanding.” Previous winners include Billy Joel, Carole King and Sir Paul McCartney. Mitchell, 79, is the first Canadian and third woman to win this award since its inception in 2007.
I wonder how many readers know that Mitchell, now of Los Angeles, (Both Sides Now; The Circle Game) can trace her roots to Coe Hill; specifically The Ridge?
Joni Mitchell’s maternal grandmother, Sadie McKee (nee Henderson) was born on October 24, 1887 in a log cabin on The Ridge. Everyone called her ‘Sadie’ although she was christened Sarah Jane. Her parents, James and Maria Henderson, are in the accompanying photo (1891) with their children Tom, Sadie, Ernie, Dan and Jim. Robert is absent. Sadie lived in the family’s new house (see photo of the Henderson house) from 1904 to 1906 when she moved to Saskatchewan to keep house for her brother Tom who had moved there at an earlier date. Sadie married James McKee circa 1910.
Ernest and Debbie Pattison presently reside in ‘The Henderson House’ and contributed significantly to this article. Many readers will know ‘Ernie’ from his Tea House in Ormsby days. Brother Gary and Lillian Pattison (The Old Hastings Mercantile and Gallery in Ormsby) also assisted me.
As an aside, when I first met ‘Ernie’ I mentioned that he and brother Gary were twins.
“We still are,” he quipped.
When she was 9 Sadie fell into the farm’s 30-foot hand dug well. In 1995 Tom Henderson’s son, Alex, recorded his father’s account of this near tragedy.
“I remember they had a well with a plank lid held together with leather straps nailed on top. Aunt Sadie and someone got a pail of water and to make sure the lid was on right Sadie jumped on it. It folded and she fell down the well into the water. Grandpa was across the road at Jack’s putting hay in the loft. He heard the yell. He cut a rope that they were using and ran back. He tied a stick on the rope and lowered it down. She was able to grab the rope and was lifted out. Just how she was able to keep her head out of the water was a question. She said she pushed back and forth in the well.”
Sadie McKee’s daughter Myrtle Marguerite, a teacher, married William Andrew Anderson, an RCAF Flight Lieutenant (pronounced ‘leff-tenant’). Myrtle said that her mother did not have an easy life. (The 2 photos of Sadie were taken in 1891 and during the 1960s.) Sadie, apparently, was also a gifted musician and organist.
On November 7, 1943 Joni was born and christened Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort MacLeod, Alberta, an only child. Following WW2 Bill Anderson left the Airforce and moved his family to Saskatchewan where he worked as a grocer living for a while in the towns of Maidstone and North Battleford. At age 9 Joni contracted polio and was hospitalized for weeks. When she was 11 they moved to Saskatoon, the “city of bridges” which she regards as her hometown.
Joni Mitchell dedicated her second album, “Clouds” to her grandmother Sadie. In 1994 she wished her distant cousin Annie Faul a happy 87th birthday. Annie used to demonstrate the art of ‘tatting’ at the North Hastings museum. Annie also lived on her family farm at The Ridge.
In 2015 Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm from which she is slowly recovering. At the Gershwin Awards she said, “This is the third time I’ve learned to walk. Once out of infancy, once out of polio and once again now.” The aneurism had also robbed her temporarily of her speech and movement. From The Ridge to L.A. Sounds like a song.
The featured image is of Maria Henderson.
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