Inspired by her literary heroes, Eileen Adams pushed boundaries about women’s roles

Eileen Morris Adams: Writer. Trailblazer. Bibliophile. Mother. Born Sept. 4, 1923, in Toronto; died July 12, 2020, in Toronto, of heart failure; aged 96.

Eileen Morris Adams came into this world eschewing tradition and claiming two dates of birth. While her parents would always celebrate Sept. 5, her birth certificate stated Sept. 4. Perhaps it was fate, for this unordinary beginning set the stage for an exceptional life.

Eileen grew up in Toronto alongside her younger sister, Dorothy. The two girls spent every moment together, playing dolls or looking through weedy grass for the fairy rings their Irish granny had told them about. When they first started working they enjoyed taking bus trips together to Quebec, staying at the YWCA for 50 cents a night. When Dorothy died of an asthma attack at 49, the loss stayed with Eileen for the rest of her life.

At a time when it was the norm for women to be homemakers, Eileen began a career as a journalist. She was 19 when her first article was published in the Canadian Red Cross Junior Magazine. She wrote about L.M. Montgomery and was paid $4. Over four decades, she wrote some 250 feature articles in many Canadian publications, everything from Maclean’s to Homemakers. She also spent many years as a department editor at Chatelaine.

A feminist to her core, Eileen wrote articles that questioned the boundaries of her time. With articles such as “Why Can’t This Girl Be a Minister?” and “House-Work is a Part-Time Job,” Eileen strove to change society’s ideas of what a woman “should” be. In 1959 she wrote an article about women taking university courses at home. Chatelaine readers were so inspired by this idea that the magazine had to hire temporary staff to sort the mailed-in responses.

It was through writing that Eileen found love. At a Toronto writer’s meeting Eileen met, in her words, the “ravishing” Eric Adams. The two were married in 1950 and held a garden reception at their home. They would be married 56 years, until Eric’s death in 2006. Eileen and Eric raised their boys, Brendan and Barry, in Toronto.

Eileen was not a pragmatist and preferred romantic imaginings over the practical realities of life. When Barry went to Boy Scout camp, Eileen packed him china dishes. They broke. Since she loved reading about Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, she idealized the idea of roughing it in the wilderness. One year she asked for and received snowshoes for Christmas. She used them once. Unfortunately, Eileen hated winter.

Eileen liked to work at difficult things. She helped found the Elizabeth Fry Society Toronto, (which helps women often ignored by society) and the Toronto Memorial Society, a group that makes funerals financially accessible to all.

Eileen was a voracious reader. Her favourite authors were Jane Austen and Lucy Maud Montgomery. While Eileen was often reading the latest book on Winston Churchill or a new and dignified novel, she was also always rereading Austen. Eileen organized the Toronto chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She enjoyed attending meetings over the decades.

As a teenager, Eileen wrote a letter to Montgomery. She told the author about her love of the Anne of Green Gables books and about her own writing dreams. Montgomery’s reply was one of Eileen’s most cherished possessions. She kept it framed on her study wall, carefully protected by a thin layer of Kleenex, lest the sun bleach it. Montgomery ended the letter with an accurate premonition. “I hope you’ll find life ‘spicy’ to the end,” she wrote. “You will, I think.”

Jenn English is Eileen’s granddaughter.

To submit a Lives Lived: lives@globeandmail.com

Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go to tgam.ca/livesguide