‘Everybody needs an Auntie Scottie’

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This article was published 27/01/2024 (847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Margaret Saundry wasn’t just an aunt to her seven nieces and nephews. She was a buddy, a surrogate mom, a mentor and a support system.

Known as Auntie Scottie in honour of her Scottish heritage, she was renowned for her generosity and her wit, a fearless woman who travelled to exotic places and always came back with stories to tell. With her vast life experience, her character and her courage, the matriarch of the family offered wise counsel for every occasion.

“My classmates in university would say, ‘Everybody needs an Auntie Scottie,’” nephew Scott Koetke said.

Saundry died at age 97 on Nov. 23.

Born in Stonewall, the second of four daughters learned at a young age to appreciate hard work and service to others. Always a strong athlete, the highland dancer played tennis and baseball. Active in the Stonewall United Church, she enjoyed singing, volunteering and worship.

Early on, too, Saundry developed strong business savvy and an understanding of the value of people and money when she worked with her older sister at McConkey’s General Store in Stonewall, where the sisters earned 25 cents a day.

“She got word that the CIBC across the street would pay $1 a day,” Koetke said. “Rather than quit without explanation, she sat the general store owner down and told him their dilemma. She wasn’t one to accept being undervalued.”

Soon after, the sisters were working at the bank, and earning significantly more, where Saundry, meticulous with numbers and managing money, gained accounting skills that would help her in her early career.

After graduating from high school, Saundry never had the opportunity to pursue a higher education. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, she worked doubly hard and encouraged education for all of her nieces and nephews.

In the 1960s, it was uncommon for women — especially from rural areas — to have television careers that took them all over the world. But for Saundry, what began as clerical work, and then accounting, quickly burgeoned into a career with the CBC, both in Winnipeg and Toronto, becoming one of their top production assistants in network sports and, ultimately, unit manager. She and her crew covered sports, in the league that was the forerunner to today’s CFL. From playing baseball for the Stonewall team to working in the dugout mingling with Major League legends Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench and Ted Williams, Saundry’s commitment to her work did not go unnoticed.

A pioneer for women in sports broadcasting, her story was chronicled in the book Radio Ladies: Canada’s Women on the Air, by Peggy Stewart. In 2013, Saundry was inducted into the CBC Hall of Fame. She retired in 1985 after 27 years with the network.

“Margaret was one of my favourites at CBC,” longtime colleague and friend Frankie Glickman said. “There was so much to admire about this remarkable lady: her work ethic, her efficiency on the job and, above all, her decency. Marg was super-bright. I loved her witty expressions: ‘I’m not a single woman, I’m an unclaimed treasure.’

“I cherish the memories of our long lunches, my annual pilgrimage to Stonewall to join her family at the fabulous fall suppers and, especially, having breakfast with her and her sister on two occasions in China, when we found ourselves at the same hotels although on different tours.”

Glickman knew that for Saundry, it was her hometown and her family that meant the most.

“Her three sisters were not just siblings: they were her best friends. She told her colleagues many times how fortunate she was that they all stayed in Manitoba. Her love for her nieces and nephews was off the charts. She was genuinely interested in their lives and the various paths they took as they completed their education and built lives of their own. Having Marg as a friend was a privilege, and I will miss her forever.”

Nephew Koetke received gifts of Canada Savings Bonds from his aunt, and was able to finish university without any debt because of her gifts.

“She really wanted to make sure we had those advantages in life,” he said. “We were not wealthy. She taught us about the value of hard work and that it’s a pretty big world. I grew up in Minnedosa. I had this aunt coming back from Munich and we were picking her up at the airport. We always knew that here’s an example where hard work pays off — she travelled the world.”

Koetke learned a lot from his Auntie Scottie, whom he also admired for her bravery.

He remembers the time she took some of her jewelry to a goldsmith in Winnipeg.

“She knew the guy kept some of the gold, so she went back in and said, ‘I know you’ve been cheating me. Make me a free ring.’ He was busted, and he made her a free ring.”

Then there was the time at a party when a drunken executive put his hand on her leg. She immediately told him to get his hand off of her. “She didn’t take any guff,” Koetke said, explaining that she was never intimidated.

When her father died, Saundry moved back to her childhood home in Stonewall to care for her mother, remaining there until after her mother’s death. She relocated to Winnipeg in 1998.

In describing her sister, Darlene Koetke said, “She cared for and looked after everybody.”

The family attended Saundry’s 90th birthday party in droves, to make a well-deserved fuss about their beloved Auntie Scottie. The long list of visitors at the care home included distant relatives sharing stories of Saundry going out of her way behind the scenes to quietly help people out with food. Her knitting and crocheting resulted in countless hand-made baby outfits donated to the Stonewall Hospital.

A memory book of anecdotes was made for her, and a sandwich board displaying all of her sayings, still quoted by family to this day, was an entertaining highlight for all the guests in attendance.

“‘I don’t know if a man could keep up with me,’ she’d say,” her nephew recalled. “She was the queen of the one-liners. She’d say, ‘Watch your Shakespeare’ or ‘church language,’ with her work colleagues while they were broadcasting in tight quarters on remote locations, when she didn’t approve of the swearing.

“She was a tough cookie but with a heart of gold.”

passages@freepress.mb.ca