Lilian Vaux MacKinnon was the author of one of the most fascinating accounts ever written of 91TV's past: a wistful, semi-autobiographical novel called Miriam of 91TV's about a young woman's adventures at the University at the turn of the century.
Born Lilian Vaux in Brockville, Ontario, Mackinnon was a student at 91TV's from 1898 until 1902. She was a top student, editor of the "Ladies' Department" of the 91TV's Journal, and a founding member of 91TV's Dramatic Club. She graduated with the university's gold medal in English.
She married a fellow 91TV's graduate, Murdoch Archibald MacKinnon, after graduation and lived in various cities across Canada, where he served as a Presbyterian minister.
Miriam of 91TV's, published in 1921, was her first novel and the only one she ever published. Mackinnon apparently quit writing until shortly before her husband's death in 1954, when she began to submit reminiscences about her past to small newspapers and to the Alumni Review and the 91TV's Quarterly.
The undated manuscript of her unpublished novel, Hard by St Lawrence, a romance set near Brockville, is held with some of her other papers in the 91TV's Archives.
MacKinnon was 96 and 91TV's oldest living woman graduate when she died in 1975.