Flo (Elliott) Whyard

Flo Elliott was born on June 13, 1917, in London, Ontario, the daughter of a newspaper reporter for the London Free Press. One of her very earliest memories was the sound of an old typewriter banging away on the other side of the wall by her crib.

During her childhood, Flo was an avid reader of such works as Kipling and O. Henry. When she was a student in high school she worked as a student reporter for the Western Gazette where she fell in love with journalism. As a young adult, she worked as a newspaper page proofer as well as office manager at Canada Bread. Flo graduated from Western University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1938.

Flo was a licenced pilot so when WWII broke out she tried to enlist as an RCAF pilot but was told that women did not qualify. She then enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Navy Service. Later, during the war, she became a trainer of provisional pilot officers for the war effort. She also began to edit and freelance features about the Canadian Wrens in the military.

Flo met James Whyard in Ottawa where her father worked. James (Jim) was an engineer and surveyor, and in 1944, they married. He was then transferred to Yellowknife. When Flo was discharged from the military in 1945 she joined her husband in Yellowknife.

She delivered her first child at the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Corp. medical facility with the birth certificate issued by the local RCMP and a Bill of Lading certificate for ore tonnage, which recorded just 8 ½ pounds. This first child, Mary Ellen Whyard, was born in 1946 and passed away at the age of 46 in Truro, NS. There is a scholarship in her name at Yukon

University for Early Childhood Development. They remained in the north for the next 53 years. During that time, they raised two children, Bill and Judy.

In 1955, they were relocated to Whitehorse where they lived in Riverdale. At first, Flo wrote for the Alaska Magazine and The Milepost. She moved on to the Whitehorse Star as a journalist and, in 1964, became its editor, a position she held for about eight years.

In 1974, Flo tried her hand at politics, and was elected to the Yukon Territorial Council for Whitehorse West, a position she held until 1978. She managed the portfolio of Health, Welfare and Corrections. She was a consensus builder and remarked, “I don’t think I was ever really a politician. I could work together with others and there were no party lines.”

Flo became mayor of Whitehorse in 1981 where she faced several crises: a major flood, a major mine closure, and the shutdown at the White Pass Railroad. She served until 1978.

Flo spent the rest of her years as an active community volunteer: a founding member of the Yukon foundation, a local historical researcher, helping to establish the Yukon Transportation Museum, instrumental in getting Macauley Lodge built.

She was always a writer, and wrote a dozen books. Possibly one of her proudest achievements was the updating and republishing of Martha Louise Black’s autobiography, My Seventy Years. She was a tireless promoter of Martha Louise Black’s legacy.

Her last contribution to the Star came in the form of a column called “And now, a few words from Flo” that she wrote during the 1990s and early 2000s.

In 1979, Flo received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Western Ontario, where she had graduated forty years earlier. In 1984, she was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada.

Flo Whyard spent her last days in Copper Ridge where she felt happy and quite at home. She passed away on April 23, 2012. She leaves two children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Rolf Hougen remarked, “She was very active in the community in every way:  from a social standpoint, from a political standpoint, as a writer and an historian. She was so deeply involved. She was a great contributor to the Yukon and to Canada.”

Joyce Hayden stated: “Always up front, willing to take risks and willing to back up her blunt words with action, she has struck fear in the hearts of critics and opponents alike. Yet her many friends, as well as the people who worked for and with her, remember her as humorous, honest and caring.” 

John Firth added, “She didn’t let a lot stand in her way and she was passionate about

history, passionate about Whitehorse and the Yukon.”

The Yukon legislative press gallery has been named after Flo Whyard.