(Mrs Arlington Fraser) (1 March 1910-9 Sept. 1982), preserver and singer of traditional songs. (Grace Fraser) Born at Dalkeith, GC. Parents: Angus William MacDonald and his wife Johanna MacGillis. She was educated at local elementary schools, and high school at Glen Nevis and Vankleek Hill, and worked in the civil service. On 2 June 1936, she married Arlington Fraser (21 June 1904-10 Jan. 1997). She and her husband lived for a few years in Montreal, thereafter on the Fraser family farm near Lancaster, GC. From the 1930s onwards, she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis . She remembered and sang many traditional songs. She contributed traditional songs to two volumes edited by the well-known Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke, Traditional Singers and Songs from Ontario (1965) pp. 57-82 and Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods (1970) pp. 199-200. (Music included with text of songs in both volumes) Edith Fowke also recorded Mrs Fraser on two LPs called “Ontario Ballads and Folksongs and “Far Canadian Fields.” Mrs Fowke described her as “the outstanding representative of the Scottish singing tradition in Ontario.” Mrs Fraser died at Glengarry Memorial Hospital. Roman Catholic. She and her husband are buried at St. Raphael’s. Their four children included Alex W. Fraser, the well-known authority on GC genealogy. The publications of Alex W. Fraser and his wife Rhoda Ross are often cited in the present volume.
Mrs Fraser’s brother, Major James Ranald MacDonald (d. 17 Oct. 1971, aged 76) served overseas with the 154th Battalion in WWI. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 for bravery and leadership when he took command of his company after its leader was wounded and, though wounded himself, led it to completion of its assigned task.
Glengarry News 22 Sept. 1982, Vankleek Hill Review 29 Sept. 1982, Highland Heritage 3:1 (Jan. 1983) * Fraser Obits.: index. (obituaries for Mrs Fraser, her father, brother James Ranald, and other members of her family) * short biog. with portrait in Fowke, Traditional Singers and Sons from Ontario, 57-58, with list of “Other Songs Mrs. Fraser Knows” * obituary of her husband, GN 15 Jan. 1997 * Major James Ranald MacDonald: obituaries Standard Freeholder 20 Oct. 1971 repr. Fraser Obits. 176, GN 11 Nov. 1971; Boss 64, 67 (two refs.), 177, 251; wounded third time, GN 6 Sept. 1918; returns from wedding trip, GN 9 July 1926