Ruth Jones McVeigh, co-founder of long-running Mariposa Folk Festival, dead at 99

Ruth Jones McVeigh, co-founder of Canada's influential and venerable Mariposa Folk Festival, has died at the age of 99.

Jones McVeigh, who died Wednesday in Ottawa, was a driving force behind the creation of the enduring, community-oriented annual musical gathering that's withstood location changes and financial challenges to become one of the longest-running folk festivals in North America.

Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan are among the scores of artists who attended the festival since its founding in 1961 and graced its stages.

"It has just grown to be such a cultural phenomenon that I think most people do know — at least they've heard of — Mariposa, if they haven't attended it," said Michael Hill, a former artistic director of the Orillia, Ont.-based festival who also wrote a book about its storied history.

"And that's all thanks to Ruth."

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A writer as well as a folk music enthusiast, Jones McVeigh was born in Halifax and got an early start in journalism in Nova Scotia before moving to Ontario with her family. There, she married Crawford Jones, a navy doctor and psychiatrist, and the couple settled in Orillia in the late 1940s to start a family.

She was a mom of four and a folk fan taking in the burgeoning scene during regular trips to Toronto when — in early 1961 — she was inspired to start a music gathering in Orillia, spurred on by a motivational speaker who encouraged small communities to boost tourism with a marquee event.

She threw herself into organizing one in a mere six months, taking cues from a then-fledging Newport Folk Festival and her jaunts to Toronto. She tirelessly promoted Mariposa via media releases, interviews and even ads on milk deliveries to cottage country.

"I loved to go to folk festivals in Toronto, and I thought maybe Orillia needs something to wake it up," Jones McVeigh told CBC News in 2010.

She had clued into a desire, especially among youth at the time, for "some kind of social gathering based on the music," Hill explained on Friday from Waterloo, Ont., and Jones McVeigh tapped friends she’d made to bring that to life.

Early success led to an ongoing challenge: location changes, which started after the 1963 edition drew more visitors (including a particularly rowdy crowd) than the population of Orillia at the time, Hill said.

From Ian & Sylvia to Serena Ryder

Mariposa — its name referencing local author Stephen Leacock's fictional town in his classic Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town — would skip through venues over the decades, including the Toronto Islands, Innis Lake near Caledon and Molson Park in Barrie, Ont., before returning to Orillia in 2000.

Throughout its moves, the festival's community atmosphere attracted performers to its stages and music workshops, from early regulars like Ian & Sylvia and hometown star Lightfoot to international figures like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Clegg and Billy Bragg.

Canadian children's musicians like Sharon, Lois & Bram, Raffi and Fred Penner have been fixtures, and Indigenous artists and performers from across Canada and worldwide highlighted. More recently, Serena Ryder, Barenaked Ladies, Shad and Tegan & Sara have taken the Mariposa stage.

Folk music has changed over time, Jones McVeigh , "but it still is telling the story of the things that matter to people."

A split from her husband after the first few festivals prompted Jones McVeigh to step back from organizing and move to Toronto. She would then move to New York and then Vancouver, where she met and married Gerry McVeigh in 1969.

They had two children together and settled on Vancouver Island, with a few years spent in Guyana. Alongside work as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor, Jones McVeigh began writing books, going on to publish non-fiction titles Fogswamp, Close Harmony and Shifting Ground. A subsequent job as an assistant to NDP MP Jim Manly eventually meant setting up in Ottawa.

Jones McVeigh was back at Mariposa in 1987 to rally support when she learned significant financial challenges had led many people to consider folding it.

"The festival was almost going bankrupt," Hill recalled. "She was one of the forces of nature who came storming down to the annual general meetings and made sure that the festival kept on going."

Nurturing young talent

Mariposa is where artists from Gordon Lightfoot to Joni Mitchell to Serena Ryder got a foot up, Hill noted, and nurturing young talent was important to its founder.

Speaking in 2013, Jones McVeigh recalled hearing a young girl called Samantha Windover performing terrific Patsy Cline covers as she roamed Mariposa the year prior. She plucked the youngster from the local talent showcase and eventually put her on the main stage as an opening act.

"I remember her just being there for me," recalls Windover, now 26 and a country folk singer-songwriter.

"It gave me the confidence at a young age to get up and to perform in front of large audiences."

Windover recalled Jones McVeigh's ongoing encouragement, whether during occasional visits to Ottawa or in emails sharing songwriting ideas and lyrics.

"She was so caring and supportive," Windover said. "Every year that I go back to Mariposa, I think about Ruth."

In 2005, Mariposa introduced a Hall of Fame, with Jones McVeigh an honorary inductee. Five years later, York University debuted an online archive dedicated to the festival that showcases images, programs and posters, audio from musical workshops, performances and radio jingles as well as a digital rendition of Jones McVeigh's diary from the early years.

"I hope [the festival] keeps on keeping on long after I'm gone," she said in 2013. "Next to my children, it's my greatest achievement."

Her survivors include her brother, six children, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.