Dossier f28 - Gibbs, Frances Elizabeth, nee Porter

File consists of a recording of Frances Gibbs. Topics of the conversation include forty-year association with Queen's Registrar's Office; Position as clerk in 5-person office, 1924. Death of Registrar Alice King. Pleasant though strictly supervised work under Dr. McNeill: no talking or coffee-breaks. Witty, outspoken characters of Charlotte and Kay Whitton. Subject's background: early death of parents; beloved aunt working with VON; secretarial course at KCVI; support of sister through nursing programme, Ottawa Civic Hospital. Sister's experience with VON in poor section of Ottawa, early position as sole stenographer for Carruthers, Fleming Hall professors. Pre-residence boarding house system for Queen's students, restricted to 'the right side of the tracks'. Hen Coop residence. Mother's boarding house for women only. Estimate of young men of the past as more appreciative, 'home-like'; female practice of taking in male boarders for daughters to marry. Subject's annual evaluation of boarding houses for Queen's students. Family connections with Army. Kingston during WWII; organisation of children's lunch facilities. Subject's opinion that women should work in the home; experience as married cook for 14 BC lumbermen. Friendship with Lorne Greene. Stuart Webster. May Chown. Miriam of Queen's. Responsibility for safety of Queen's early exam papers, printed by Jackson Press. Gap in Queen's career, 1945-58. Work presiding at examinations (some in hospital); reading exams aloud to blind student. Lawrence J. Wilson, entertainer extraordinaire; former Queen's University parades; student raids on the Grand Opera House. Amusement tax during WWI.