‘Canada’s youngest ventriloquist’

As a teen, she overcame shyness and a stutter by performing for children

Province: 2009 March 29

Carolyn Walters, who started her lifelong showbiz career at age 11 as "Canada's youngest ventriloquist," died at the age of 63 on Feb. 22.

Walters was born Carolyn Louise Blythe in the English working-class neighbourhood of Verdun in Montreal on Aug. 19, 1945, just after the end of the Second World War.

She was the first of five children and was a "desperately shy child, with a pronounced stutter," friend Kathleen Cross said in a eulogy at her memorial in Vancouver earlier this month.

When she was 11, she brought a hand puppet to "show and tell" at school and, while talking through the puppet in its voice, Walters told jokes without stuttering or even moving her lips and made her classmates laugh.

It wasn't long before she and her dummy, Sandy, started performing puppetry and ventriloquism with her father's amateur entertainment group, the Blue Sky Revue.

Sandy was the alter ego of the young Carolyn Blythe, the wisecracking, cynical, confident and funny person Walters became as an adult, Cross said.

By age 17, Walters was earning a living as the ventriloquist host of the CBC-TV show Sandy and Co., a gig that lasted three years and led to several other appearances on TV and radio, including the Juliette Show, Talent Caravan, Doubletalk, Tabloid and Montreal Matinee.

She and Peggy Austin later co-hosted TV's Cartoon Corner. She, along with Sandy, was also a regular on CBC's youth variety show Time of Your Life and also wrote for CTV's Hi Diddle Day show in Ottawa.

But she eventually suffered burnout as a child star and had difficulty moving beyond that persona, said Cross.

Walters was married briefly in her 20s and she and her husband had a son, Christopher Walters.

In the early 1970s, she performed as a puppeteer with the Waterville Gang, a weekly CTV show, before founding the Wobble, Lump and Squeak Theatre in Toronto, a rod-puppet company for children.

She later worked in film animation and other entertainment projects and as the production manager for the 1993 Steven Spielberg/Tim Burton film The Family Dog.

"Her whole life was devoted to expressing that childlike wonder at the world and delight in the humourous, the wacky, the downright cheeky," said Cross.

During her working years, "she worked like a maniac and then there would be times when I'm not sure what she lived on," recalled former partner Lynnie Johnston.

In 1995, while living in Toronto, Walters was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 50 and given 18 months to live.

As testament of her friends' devotion to her, they found her a new apartment and moved her into it while she was in hospital after it was determined her loft was unsuitable for her convalescence.

Despite the early death prediction, Walters lived another 13 years.

After moving to the West Coast, she took up ocean kayaking and "extreme" knitting (knitting together multiple strands of yarn using oversized needles) and she and partner Ida Dennekamp made a short film called The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree that was screened at gay and lesbian film festivals in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.

In 2005, she celebrated her decade of living with terminal cancer with a party called "10 years past expiration" and a kayaking trip with several friends to Mexico.

Walters was predeceased by her mother. She leaves her son, father and four siblings.
slazaruk@theprovince.com

BC Cancer Agency holds forum for lesbians

'It behooves us to try and find ways to make people comfortable': doctor

Xtra West: 2009 March 26
Samantha Sarra

“I didn’t recognize you without your hair,” one participant jokes with another who has lost her hair to cancer treatment.
The lecture hall at the BC Cancer Agency is a mixture of laughter and tears as 70 queer women gather for Living the Dolce Vita, an educational presentation on cancer targeted at lesbians, Mar 14.

It’s the first time the BC Cancer Agency has officially provided a forum for lesbians.

The idea for the conference came from Sarah Sample, an oncology social worker at the Vancouver Cancer Centre. For the last 10 years, she has led a support group for lesbians with cancer.

“Lesbians can come together and talk about cancer without any fear of homophobia,” she explains. “The most important thing is that they are in a safe environment. They can talk about how they feel with women who have similar issues.”

Though Sample says the health care system has generally been an accepting, inclusive place for her, there are still service disparities.

“Women have remarked to me that during treatment their partners felt invisible, were referred to as friends rather then partners,” she says. “We are holding this event to continue bringing awareness to the prevention of cancer and support for those living with cancer.”

The first presenter is registered dietician Cheri Van Patten who has worked in oncology nutrition for the last 10 years. “Lesbians have unique health behaviours that are associated with higher cancer risks including increased body weight, smoking and heavy alcohol use,” she says.

“I’ve had a hard time discussing weight issues with queer women,” Van Patten admits. “They say they’ve fought so hard to be their own women and aren’t as open to discussing body weight.”

The fact that lesbians are less likely than heterosexual women to have full-term pregnancies and breast feed, factors that protect against cancer, also increase their risk.

“Knowing that these things exist can make us better practitioners,” Van Patten says.

“Knowledge is power,” says Dr Dianne Miller, who presented on gynaecologic oncology. “There’s a chance here for the lesbian community to come together and support healthy lifestyle changes. The primary change has to come from within the community.”

Deborah Rusch, one of the Dolce Vita organizers, agrees.

“Our community has backgrounds of not being able to come out, hidden lifestyles and drinking as a way of coping, so we need to come together and look at living healthier.”

“If we can start by having less homophobia for teens, then people are going to feel better about themselves and make healthier choices,” adds Dr Karen Gelmon, doctor of oncology and professor of medicine at UBC.

“We don’t want people dying of these cancers,” she says. “We don’t have a handle on what causes breast cancer for an individual woman, but what we can do is start educating young girls and hope it makes a difference.”

Gelmon stresses the importance of public information and a non-intimidating, lesbian-friendly health care system.

“We need to take control of our bodies. Fifty percent of cancers are diagnosed by patients, their partners and their doctors. People can’t be afraid of accessing the health care system,” she says. “We need to ensure there are less negative experiences.

“There is a decrease among lesbians in the upkeep of services like mammography,” she notes. “We need to make sure we have sensitive, educated practitioners.”

“Many of the women at risk don’t access the health care system,” agrees Miller. “It behooves us to try and find ways to make people comfortable.”

Other barriers to quality care include misinformation. “There is a myth that lesbians do not get cervical cancer,” explains Miller. “You can get HPV from same-sex intercourse. I think that if you can provide the knowledge, people can make better choices.”

One of the women who attended the presentation was 36-year-old Tracy Di Venanzo. “When I was 34, I was in the shower doing a routine self-exam and I found a lump,” recalls Di Venanzo. “My spouse and son dropped me off at the clinic and went to the park to play. I went in thinking I was going to have a mammogram and I left with a diagnosis of breast cancer.

“I endured 25 rounds of chemotherapy and I opted to have a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery. I am proud to say I am a survivor,” she says.

“This presentation was empowering and informative,” Di Venanzo continues. “I came today because any time there are new advances in cancer or any way that I can educate myself and other women, I want to be part of that.”

Living the Dolce Vita in Comfortable Shoes

A very successful event!


Moderator: Dr. Elizabeth Whynot, Past President, BC Women's Hospital

B.C. Women's Foundation
Advancing the Health of Girls and Women


Cheri Van Patten, Registered Dietitian & Clinical Researcher, BCCA


Nutrition and Breast Cancer: What You Need to Know

American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR)
- Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention

Dial-A-Dietitian

HealthLinkBC (8-1-1)

Health Canada
- Canada's Food Guide
- Canada's Physical Activity Guide
- It's Your Health
- Just for You - Women

Dr. Dianne Miller, Chair, Gynecology Tumour Group, BCCA

- GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGISTS STRONGLY ENDORSE NACI STATEMENT ON HPV VACCINATION
- Ovarian cancer not just one disease, local study finds


Dr. Karen Gelmon, Past Chair, Breast Tumour Group, BCCA

- Profile in Abreast in the West


Déroutes et parcours

- Watch the complete video

Lesbians & Cancer - Free Forum

The first ever BC Cancer Agency education Forum specifically on Lesbians and Cancer.

This ground breaking half day event is for lesbians with or without cancer and focuses on prevention.

Please register now as seating is limited, registration includes breakfast.

This is a Free event

The Forum is called "Living the Dolce Vita in Comfortable Shoes." Leading professionals and experts from the BC Cancer Agency will inform you of the way to healthy living, break down the myths regarding cancer screening and detail the signs and symptoms to be aware of. Learn how to take care of your health and reduce your risk of cancer. A special screening of a 25 minute video based on the journey of women with breast cancer ends the morning.

Are you entering the age where living healthy has become a high priority in your life? What constitutes a healthy lifestyle and how can lesbians engage in this?

Speakers include:

• Dr. Karen Gelmon, Past Chair, Breast Tumour Group, BCCA
• Dr. Dianne Miller, Chair, Gynecology Tumour Group BCCA
• Cheri Van Patten, Registered Dietitian & Clinical Researcher

Moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Whynot, Past President, BC Women's Hospital

Saturday March 14, 2009, 8:00am - 11:30am at the BC Cancer Research Centre 675 West 10 Avenue Vancouver.

Registration is limited so please call 604.877.6000 ext 2194 or email livingthedolcevita@gmail.com.

Please register by March 10/09.