Elizabeth (Betty) Kathleen Murray  

B.A. (Mount Allison University)

Teaching Diploma (Provincial Normal College, Truro)

Ed.D. Honorary (Acadia University)

 

Born: January 2, 1917, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

Died: June 15, 1996, Halifax Infirmary, Nova Scotia

 

Biographical Note:

Elizabeth (Betty) Murray in1946 became the first Field Representative for the then newly-formed Adult Education Division of the Nova Scotia Department of Education. The Division's role, as outlined by its Director Guy Henson in this post-WWII period, was

  1. to help communities develop educational programs suited to their interests and needs,

  2. to meet the especially urgent needs of racial minorities, unemployed youth, war veterans, and women, and

  3. to cooperate with existing educational institutions and voluntary groups.

Of the three types of service envisioned by Henson, "vocational, civic and cultural", it was in the latter area that Betty made a particularly lasting legacy to the people of her province.    

Before joining the Division of Adult Education, Betty had taught for three years at a one-room school at Barrasois, near Tatamagouche, where her innovative schemes for bringing children and adults together through music, libraries, and environmental projects caught the attention of school inspectors and Dr. Mortimer Marshall of Acadia University. In 1945, Betty was invited by Marshall to come to Acadia where she was to integrate education students into the life of neighbouring communities. Each student would lead a study group in an area of his or her particular interest and expertise. Betty herself, whose special talent lay in music, established a different choral group for each night of the week, and directed a children's choir on Saturdays. Her assignment with the Division of Adult Education, one year later, grew naturally out of the 'Marshall Plan' for, under an agreement reached between Henson and Marshall, she was able to serve the Division by continuing her outreach in the Annapolis Valley. She reported back to Henson and co-workers Charless Topshee (Assistant Director), John Hugh Mackenzie (Veterans Affairs) and drama advisor Don Wetmore about the strategies that worked for her, and those that were less successful. For Betty, this project with adults at mid-century "was all hitting out in the dark, all experimental."  She certainly did not consider herself an expert in community development, nor did she try to convince others that she had special skills in music. In fact, she worried at times that it "was so easy, getting people enthusiastic about these things."

In the years 1951-55, when Betty was reassigned similar tasks in the Brookfield-Truro, this enthusiasm within study groups and music circles spread throughout much of central NS.  In 1955, she came to Halifax as Music Advisor with the Division. Here she played a central role in the growth of Music Festivals, participated in residential folk schools, gave short courses in music throughout the province, directed choirs, and developed a choral lending library for the Division. She also took the lead in three important artistic landmarks: the residential School of Community Arts, which grew out of the highly successful folk schools and attracted leading national and international educators; the Festival of the Arts, again on a national and international scale, which was located in Betty's home town of Tatamagouche for a decade, starting in1956; and the Junior School of the Arts, which extended goals of the senior school to the province's youth.

Betty left the Division in 1961 and returned to teaching in Halifax until her retirement to Tatamagouche. In the mid-sixties, she directed four opera camps for youth and adults at her farmhouse in New Annan. Starting in 1980, she wrote and produced a series of 14 plays with music, each depicting a different special event in the history of Tatamagouche. The thousands of friends and visitors who attended these plays saw villagers recreate their past through simple stories of everyday life and adventure, and they heard music of extraordinary beauty. 

Encompassing each of Betty Murray's projects was her belief in social justice, in artistic expression as integral to learning, and her refusal to consider the work of schools and of adult education as separate undertakings. Her legacy, for many, was to define Community Arts broadly, not only aesthetically but also in terms of individual and social development. She encouraged people to embrace community life, yet challenge its limitations.

Though she generally avoided the limelight, Betty accepted an honorary doctorate from Acadia University in 1977, and honorary life memberships from the NS Choral Federation, the NS Music Educators' Association, and the Canadian Music Educators' Association.

 

Selected Publications:

Harris, C. E. (1998). A sense of themselves: Elizabeth Murray's leadership in school and community. Halifax: Fernwood.

Harris, C. E. (1994). Discovering educational leadership in connections: Dr. Elizabeth

Murray of Tatamagouche. Canadian Journal of Education, 19 (4), 368-385.

Henson, G. (1949). Report of the Director of Adult Education (pp. 197-218). Appendix M.

Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education for Nova Scotia for the Year Ended July 31st, 1948. Halifax: King's Printer.

Murray, E. (1943). Music in the rural school. Journal of Education (December, pp. 1002-1003). Halifax.

Murray, E. (1948). Report of Miss Elizabeth Murray as Rural Representative in Central Kings County. In Annual Report 1947. Superintendent of Education for Nova Scotia, pp. 175-178. 

 

 

Prepared January 30, 2004 - Carol E. Harris

 

 

 


 

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