Fonds MG 21.56 - Lloyd MacInnis fonds

Lloyd Young MacInnis was born on August 21, 1917 in Sydney, Nova Scotia to Frederick MacInnis and Martha Young. He grew up in Sydney with his siblings, Jean MacInnis, Roy MacInnis and Helen MacInnis, and graduated from Sydney Academy. He eventually married Florence Martin and the couple had three children, Ronald MacInnis, Sue MacInnis, and Nancy MacInnis (Nancy Fraser).

After graduating from Sydney Academy, he worked for the Royal Bank of Canada for a time before shifting to a job at a dry cleaning business in Moncton, New Brunswick. It was in Moncton that Lloyd first became interested in broadcasting. In 1948, he joined CJCB Radio in Sydney where he hosted The Morning Clock and Dishpan Parade, popular morning shows, with his co-host, Bill Loeb. The shows were incredibly popular with a passionate community of fans. Dishpan Parade went off the air in 1952. In the fall of 1958, Lloyd made a transition to television at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) where he hosted Gazette, and immediately became known to viewers across North America due to his reporting of the Springhill mine disaster on October 23, 1958 in Springhill, Nova Scotia.

Lloyd was highly involved in community initiatives, always volunteering for charitable efforts, especially involving children. He wrote, produced and narrated the award-winning CBC documentary “The Silence Barrier” about teaching deaf children how to speak. On March 8, 1965, he was in Washington, D.C. to accept one of the two 1965 Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf Awards at a banquet held at the National Geographic Society Building for his work on the documentary. His friend and fellow-broadcaster, Edmund Morris, made a tribute to Lloyd on air on CHNS Radio that read in part, “He was a gentleman, a thoroughbred, that happy breed of broadcaster whose public image was a precise and easy replica of his private character. His style was that of the soft, almost tender, touch, which exactly matched his temperament.”

Just days later, on March 14, 1965, between two benefit variety shows that he was M.C.ing for the Kiwanis Club, Mr. MacInnis died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 47. There was an outpouring of grief and support for the family by the public and thousands attended his funeral at Bethany United Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax.