While researching the archives of The Ottawa Journal, I found this article from the March 22, 1954 edition of the paper, on Page 30. It denotes “Canada’s first sex change” of Frances Marie Jefferson, age 24.
I always find any assertion of “first” with the media deeply dubious; first known to the author no doubt. Another article from two days previous refers to her as Josephine Jefferson age 21; I suspect this is erroneous. It might be tempting to apply contemporaneous labels of intersex or trans to her, but you’d really need her own voice to do that and that’s missing.
CANADA’S FIRST SEX CHANGE – Frances Marie Jefferson of Port Colborne, Ont., born with both male and female characteristics, was able to take up a woman’s role after surgery. In this photo Frances admires a new hair-do in a Toronto beauty salon. Born in Bridgewater, NS, 24 years ago, Frances had to live as a man until completion this year of a series of operations.
Liked to Knit, Sew, Long Before Sex Change
WELLAND, March 22 – Frances Marie Jefferson, 24, whose change from a man to a woman by surgical means was announced Friday, as a child always liked to knit and sew.
Her mother, Mrs. Kenneth Jefferson, of nearby Port Colborne, said in an interview with the Toronto Telegram, the child, seventh in a family of 11, always was different from the others. As a boy named Francis, the child was neat and clean and took a great interest in helping her around the house.
“Why, he could get as good a meal ready as I could from the time he was very young”, said Mrs. Jefferson. “And he was always good at baking and loved to knit and sew. Whenever he saw me washing dishes, he wanted to help.”
TORONTO, March 22 – A Toronto doctor said Saturday Marie Jefferson, of Port Colborne, who became a woman by surgery in Canada’s first known sex-change case, can never have children.
Another article, published in page 36 of The Ottawa Journal on March 20th, 1954, adds additional context – if some confusion by referring to her by entirely different names and even age.
WELLAND, March 20 – Canada’s first known sex-change case was reported Friday when a Welland doctor said he performed the final operation in a series which transformed a Port Colborne, Ont., man into a woman.
The patient was identified as the former Kenneth Jefferson, 21, now Josephine Jefferson.
Dr. Stuart Wilson said in an interview with the Toronto Telegram the patient went to the United States about a year ago and there underwent the first operations. Later some operations were performed in Toronto. Dr. Wilson said he performed the last operation at the Welland Hospital amid the utmost secrecy and his patient was released from hospital a few days ago as a woman.
Major Surgery in U.S.
Dr. Wilson said his part in the Jefferson sex-change was “relatively minor procedure” and that the major surgery was carried out elsewhere.
Dr. Wilson, 40, a specialist in urological surgery who is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, announced the identity of his patient after receiving permission to do so.
He said his patient at birth had sex characteristics of both male and female and was brought up as a male.
“But there is no doubt that the patient was mostly a woman.”
Pseudo Characteristics.
He said Jefferson was what medical science describes as a “pseudo-hermaphrodite”, a type which appears to have both male and female characteristics but is really either male or female. In this case, the patient grew up in the wrong sex and so there had to be a readjustment from man to woman, the doctor said.
The Telegram story said the operations which took place in Welland are believed to have consisted of steps to remove male sex organs and that plastic surgery played a part in these operations.
Dr. Wilson said that when the patient returned from the U.S. as a female, “only one or two intimate friends as well as the family was aware this female was the young man who had gone away”.
Mrs. Lydia Bilozorski, who operates a general store in Port Colborne and who had known the family about a year, said she never knew Josephine was not always a woman.
“But we always thought it peculiar that we never saw her hair”, Mrs. Bilozorski said. “She always wore a bandana.”
Thursday, however, she saw Josephine’s hair for the first time, said Mrs. Bilozorski. She said it was medium length.
“She was in the store and she told me she had had an operation. She didn’t saw what kind.”
Most Celebrated Case.
The most celebrated sex-change was that of George Jorgensen, former U.S. soldier who became blonde Christine Jorgensen in December, 1952, after a series of operations in Denmark. More recently it was announced in England that Robert Cowell, 33, father of two children, has become Roberta Elizabeth Cowell. Another sex conversion case was that of Charlie McLeod, of New Orleans, formerly of the U.S. Army, reported to have undergone operations in Denmark and returned to his homeland as Charlotte McLeod.
No other record of her appears to exist outside of the attention around March 20-22 1954, except for an assault of her two years previous under her birth name of Francis Eugene Jefferson. This appeared in the October 10, 1952 issue of the Whitehorse Star:
Frances Marie Jefferson was not the only Canadian of the era. Here’s a piece in The Lethbridge Herald, from August 18, 1954. It was about an anonymous Canadian who had gone to Denmark to access surgery; but Denmark had forbidden foreigners to access gender surgeries in the country following the headlines with Christine Jorgensen:
Records of people living as the other gender from that assigned at birth dates way back though. Here’s a clipping from 1893, in Nova Scotia of Frank Blunt:
Before Blunt was also Dr. James Barry who was in Canada from 1857 to 1859, though the change of gender was only reported after his death in 1865.
“Sex change” was the term seen in Frances Marie Jefferson’s time; its use documented in Ottawa newspapers of the era for instance in 1941 with coverage of Barbara Ann Richards. The word “transsexual” wouldn’t appear in Ottawa newspapers until 1967. Here’s one instance of its use from The Ottawa Citizen on May 15, 1968 (page 66).
Some sixteen years after Frances Marie’s Jefferson’s story, and some seventy after Frank Blunt’s, another newspaper declared Dianna Boileau “Canada’s first sex-swapper”. This was of course wrong, but the trend of newspapers calling things a “first” when they’re not for trans people would continue into the present day. Meanwhile, trans people like Jackie Shane were doing their thing. From The Globe and Mail on the 16th of September 1970:
You can find a digitized copy of Dianna’s book at The Internet Archives.