Accession N-2006-011 - John Williams collection

Mary Craig Murphy was born in [Dawson City] Yukon, in 1909/1910. She was a graduate of Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing, and in the early part of her career worked at Fort William and northern Ontario mining communities. She served as a volunteer in the Red Cross Corps in Scotland during WWII. Mary Murphy arrived in Yellowknife on November 29, 1947 to assume the position of matron nurse at the new Yellowknife Red Cross Hospital. Her duties included hospital administration as well as nursing supervision. Within the community, Mary was active in the Daughters of the Midnight Sun and the Trinity Anglican Church. She resigned from her position at the hospital in spring of 1959 and left Yellowknife on July 23, 1959. She nursed in Burlington, Ontario in the 1960s and moved to New Westminster BC to be close to her siblings in the late 1960s. Mary died in New Westminster, BC on December 20, 1969. As a memorial to her legacy in Yellowknife, the seniors care home that opened in Yellowknife in early 1970 was named the Mary Murphy Seniors Home.