STILL STRUMMING!

At 96, I’m not ready for the rocking chair just yet! I have paid my dues many times over, had the privilege of performing overseas during World War II, and I’m still singing and picking on my guitar on both sides of the Canada-u.s. border. My fans and friends know me as “New Brunswick’s favourite daughter.”

I was inducted into America’s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame in Anita, Iowa, in 2005 by its president, Mr. Bob Everhart. In November 2020, I received a Pioneers Award from Ivan and Vivian Hicks, owners of the New Brunswick Country Music Hall of Fame, another great honour—this one bestowed right here in Canada.

You can check me out on Youtube singing “Me and My Radio, Just Keep on Trucking Home” with the talented Curley Mccormick. We had the pleasure of recording that song, which was written by Michael T. Wall and Thomas A. Kuzyk, on our 2003 CD release, “Country to the Bone/the Two M’s in Harmony.”

My friend Michael T. Wall (shown above with

Flora at the 2020 Pioneers award ceremony) has been a big help in promoting my recordings and career around the world. I first met “The Singing Newfoundlander” back in the ’60s at a Rock Hill Park music festival in Shelburne, Ont. I did not have my guitar with me when I was asked to perform and Michael came to my rescue by lending me his—what a nice guy I thought to myself back then and that impression has never changed. More recently, Michael and his song-writing partner Fay Herridge, also a Newfoundlander, penned a song called

“Flora Played a Martin” as a tribute to me and my trusty Martin 12-string. In 2021, Michael recorded the song on Country Roads Records. What an honour! And what a joy to still be part of the country music scene and among such wonderful friends.