Laddie Dennis

Born Adelaide Margaret Eleanor Marie Boissonneau, “Laddie” moved with her family first from Manitoba to Ohio and then to Montreal where she began her acting career. She appeared in repertory theatre and on radio before deciding to move to Toronto in 1942. She used Laddie Dennis, her mother`s maiden name, as a professional name and worked as a model and a fashion commentator. When television began in Canada she became the first woman to appear on Canadian TV when she worked alongside Joel Aldred in a live commercial for Westinghouse the second day CBC was on air. She had won the contract as the Westinghouse girl and held onto it for six and a half years – the longest running spokeswoman job on Canadian TV at the time. She was pre-deceased by her husband, writer/novelist James Burke, who died in December of 2006. They had met in 1948 at Toronto`s Central Y residence, where he lived and where she had gone for a cheap meal. They married in 1951. During her long life, Laddie Dennis was an actor, publicity director, travel writer and photographer. Her acting career spanned over two decades on stage, movies, radio and television. From 1970 to 1985, she was The Director of Public Relations for The Scarborough Public Libraries and, over a 30-year period, she was a well-known travel writer and photographer for many publications, including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. Some sources state her birth year as 1920.