Joyce Beaton
Personal Information
Description
Born in Mimico, Ontario to Marjorie Slack and Clarence (Pete) Dadson, the first child of six. Raised in Port Credit, attended Forest Avenue Public School and Port Credit High School, graduating 1951. Trained in radio acting and working for Stovin and Company, radio reps, until marriage in 1952. Married James Leslie Beaton, childhood sweetheart 1953, birthed six children, two of whom died in childhood of Sandhoff Disease, a derivitive of Tay Saks. Raised four sons, Peter, Douglas, James, Lorne to adulthood. Divorced in 1980. Managed STOP (Society to Overcome Pollution) office in Montreal 1969-1973 Wrote for the Canadian Champion, Milton, Ont. 1973-1975 Co-owned publishing company Goldenglow Publications. Published Early Canadian Life, a social history magazine 1976-1980 Taught Women's Studies at Sheridan College, Oakville and Brampton campuses Director of Public Relations, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, 1980-1984; Queensway General Hospital, 1984-1986; Toronto East General Hospital 1986-1988; Director of Huntsville Hospital Foundation, and Public Relation 1988-1994. President of HCPRA (Health Care Public Relations Association, Canada) Life Member of HCPRA. Retired 1994 to Lake of Bays, Muskoka, Ontario. Continues to write family history and maintains the family tree. Married in 2000 in Hungary to John Bihari, who immigrated to Canada in 1957. Became mother to his sons Andrew, Paul, James and Steven. Together they have 13 grandchildren. In October 2018, at age 86, she moved from Muskoka to Milton, Ontario to be closer to the remaining members of her family. Husband John Bihari died in 2016, son Peter Beaton in 2017 and her granddaughter Lila Beaton, daughter of Lorne, in 2018. She continues to write. The community of Milton, where she had lived and worked in the 1970s, honoured her in November 2019 with inclusion in the recognition of 100 women who made "significant achievement" in the community over the past 100 years.This historic project was on display in the local library for six weeks.
Books
When Lightning Strikes
He reached down and plucked her from the thick mud, then lifted her effortlessly into his lap, setting her crosswise on the tall gray horse. He was a total stranger, who thrilled her with danger and desire. Abigail Bliss couldn't tell him her real name. Her father had insisted on an alias on thier Oregon-bound wagon train. Tanner McNight was everything her father warned her against: a bounty hunter, lawless, untamed. She couldn't know that she was the bounty she sought, even as she melted in his fiery embrace...
I Be Two in Tember, autobiography of Joyce Beaton
The author published her biography at age 73, not realizing she had at least 18 more years of life to live. At 91 she has published those years in a short story format, Before I Forget.
Now it's my turn
What does a 40-year old woman do with the rest of her life when she finds herself with her youngest child in school and a second lifetime ahead of her? Millions of women will laugh a little, cry a little and most definitely identify with Joyce Beaton. Men will find her book full of clues to the restlessness of today's (1974) wife and mother. She touches shrewdly on the unmentioned and little discussed subject of the middle-aged man's dissatisfaction with life also. Virtually overnight at age 40 Joyce Beaton woke up and took stock of her life. What did she have to bargain with when she gave up a career at 20 for marriage and her at-home experience only prepared her as a waitress or at best a file clerk? Far from moaning about her lot in life, Joyce didn't slip into her menopausal years with a drink in her hand, a pill bottle and a resigned attitude. She said "Now it's my turn" and got involved immediately in the things that interested her, writing, the environment, minority and women's rights. Average is the word Joyce Beaton uses to describe herself. In this book she takes you through her adventures with wit, compassion and a fantastic understanding of what it's all about to be a woman today.