(6 March 1859-8 Jan. 1938), businesswoman. Born at Lancaster, GC. Her parents, who later lived in Ottawa, were John B. MacKenzie (John Ban MacKenzie) and his wife Catherine. John B. MacKenzie (1833-26 Oct. 1899), who was a hotel keeper in Cornwall and Ottawa, and also a constable at several locations, was the son of Major Kenneth Mackenzie of Lochiel Township. Mrs Sears was a great-grandniece of a noted fur trader, the Hon. Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne, and a relative of Sir Alexander Mackenzie the explorer.

     She was married in Ottawa to Norman Sears, who died (in Toronto) about 40 years before his wife. Their only son, Major Archibald Sears (A. A. Sears), of the 38th Battalion (formerly Capt. in the 59th), was killed in Nov. 1916, at the Battle of the Somme. Her employment included being a law clerk in an Ottawa firm in the 1880s, and she afterwards worked as an accountant at Ottawa city hall. In 1910, at a time when apartment buildings were rare in the capital, she built the Mackenzie apartments in Ottawa. In 1917 she took over the place of her late son in the Ottawa real estate and insurance firm of Courtney, Sears and Brennan. Her obituary in the Ottawa Evening Citizen described her as a “pioneer business woman who overcame sorrow and grief to place herself among the top-ranking women of the Dominion,” and praised her success in the competitive masculine world of business, and observed that “Up to the time of her death, she was doing the same work as the men of the firm” of Courtney, Sears and Brennan.

     A well known Ottawa figure, she was involved in helping to re-elect Prime Minister Borden in the win-the-war election of 1917, and was active in many organizations. She was one of the organizers of the Women’s Conservative Association, a member of the Carnegie Public Library Board, Ottawa, one of the first appointees to to the Old Age Pension Board and its chairman for the last two years of her life, and shared in the work of the Ottawa Council of Social Agencies. She died suddenly, while travelling on an Ottawa street car, in her 79th year. Burial was at Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa. Presbyterian. Charlotte Whitton was among the people whose tributes to her at the time of her death appeared in the press, and R.B. Bennett, the former prime minister, was among the prominent and well-connected people present at her very heavily-attended funeral in Ottawa.

The Evening Citizen (Ottawa) 10 & 12 Jan. 1938 with portrait, much biog. detail, & (abridged from The Evening Citizen; repr. Fraser Obits. 301-302) Glengarry News 14 Jan. 1938 * obituary of her father (from Ottawa Free Press ), GN 10 Nov. 1899 repr. Fraser Obits. 226 * death of Major A. A. Sears, GN 24 Nov. 1916 * Boss 60, 206