Fonds PP - Olga Penner "Aunt Olly" fonds

Vinyl Record, BBC Series for Schools, Stories and Rhymes Vinyl Record, Andy and the Lion Vinyl Record, Captain Kangaroo's "Treasure House" Vinyl Record, Tom Glazer Concert Vinyl Record, Pete Seeger Vinyl Record BBC Broadcast for Schools, Let's Join in Vinyl Record, BBC Broadcast for Schools, Let's Join in Vinyl Record, BBC, The Just So Stories Vinyl Record, The Little Engine that Could Vinyl Record, Centennial Symphony Orchestra Vinyl Record, Bread and Jam for Frances Vinyl Record, Now We Know Series Vinyl Record, A Child's Introduction to the Classics A Child's Introduction to Gilbert and Sullivan Vinyl Record, Thumper's Great Race
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Identity area

Reference code

CA MHC PP

Title

Olga Penner "Aunt Olly" fonds

Date(s)

  • 1955-2007 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

4 cm of textual records
287 Photographs
29 Vinyl Records

Context area

Name of creator

(1929-2015)

Biographical history

Olga Penner (nee Wiebe), better known as “Olly”, was born, April 7, 1929, in McAuley, Manitoba near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. She moved with her family to Gardenton, Manitoba when she was still quite young and that is where she attended school until the 11th grade at the Purple Bank School. She did her 11th grade year at the Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna and her grade 12 year in Morris after her family moved there. Olly completed Normal School in 1947-48, earning a teaching certificate which she used to get her first teaching job at Kenneth School near Roseisle, Manitoba. After a year of teaching there she took a new position in Winkler, Manitoba where she taught up until 1951. In the summer of 1950, Olly was married to fellow teacher Victor “Vic” Penner and they moved to Altona in 1951 where he became the editor of the Altona Echo (later the Red River Valley Echo), and Olly raised their two sons, David and Steven.
In the early 1960s, Olly accepted a job in radio broadcasting for CFAM with an agreement that said that she would have the same holiday schedule and working hours as her two sons who were in school so that she could be home with them as much as possible. Some of the radio programs she did were “Ladies First”, “Hints for Homemakers”, and “The Garden Show”. She also co-hosted the morning show for 13 years. However, the program that she was best known for was “Children’s Party” that aired at 4:00 PM every weekday. At a time when television sets were rare, children rushed home to listen to “Aunt Olly” and her puppet friend Gus. She retired in 1987 after 27 years on the air. Olly was also active in local community organizations, taught Sunday School at her Mennonite Church, and wrote a weekly column in the Altona Echo.
At the age of 86 years old, Olly Penner passed away at the Altona Hospital on May 29, 2015.

Archival history

The materials in this fonds were created/collected by Olga “Olly” Penner in her capacity as a radio show host for CFAM radio. They were donated to the Centre by her son Steve Penner on July 13th, 2022.

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Scope and content

The material of this fonds consists of memorabilia from Olly Penner’s time as “Aunt Olly” on CFAM Radio. Most of the later material surrounds the awards that Olly earned for her work at CFAM and in the community. There is a scrapbook full of fan mail sent from children who listened to the “Children’s Party” program. This fan mail contains letters to Aunt Olly, photographs of the children who are writing and drawings done for Aunt Olly. Many of the drawings are based on the stories that Aunt Olly would tell on the radio. There are also vinyl records of the songs and stories that were played over the radio during Aunt Olly’s programming. A group of photos are also included of Olly Penner celebrating various milestones and events in her life.

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Note

Accession number 2022-045

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