“R” is for “Reading” - Part 1
The Enigmatic Book (and Film) Mrs. Mike
By Phyllis Knox
This blog is part of a very special series created and written by Phyllis Knox, “Alphabetic Musings”, whereby she chooses a word starting with a particular letter from the alphabet and injects it with her storytelling magic.
The 1947 novel, Mrs. Mike, and the follow up 1949 film adaptation of the same name, is based on an account of her life that Katherine Mary O’Fallon (1899-1954) gave to the writers Benedict and Nancy Freeman. According to this account, O’Fallon traveled to Calgary from Boston in 1907 at the age of 16 to visit her uncle and recover from pleurisy. This much was indeed true: so far, so good! But the rest of the account of her life, which the Freedmans turned into the bestselling novel Mrs, Mike (named the official selection for the Literary Guild of 1947, and printed in a remarkable 27 editions) was an utter fabrication. Her account, the story that Katherine Mary told Benedict and Nancy, turned out to be pure fiction. How do I know this? Well, I will keep you guessing a little longer, EH!
(SPOILER ALERT!) In real life, Katherine Mary did not meet a Mike Flannagan, sergeant with the Royal North-West Mounted Police (such a man never existed), and she did definitely not marry him nor move with him to live in isolated Mountie posts in the mountain and lake regions of British Columbia and northern Alberta (Lesser Slave Lake). Furthermore, the “Flannigans” never had two children who died of diphtheria nor did they adopt the three orphaned children mentioned in the book. Katherine Mary used her heart and her soul to imagine a story about a man who simply never existed and who never worked as Mountie in the North. Misinformation about Katherine Mary’s life persists: “after Sgt. Flannigan’s death in 1944 from a ruptured appendix, Katherine Mary Flannigan left the North.” The authors, the Freedmans, claimed that while there were some fictionalized elements in their novel, the main events were true…but they also admitted that they hadn’t really verified the information very thoroughly, if at all.
Now here's my connection to this story…the real story (drum roll, please!).
In reality, Mary Katherine (O’Fallon) married John P. Knox, (my father’s uncle, which makes her my great-aunt). They lived in Vancouver. He went by the name Jack Knox, and he was from the little town of Quyon, Quebec. She moved to Canada from Boston and only returned to that American town a few times to see her mother and her two sisters; home was now in Western Canada. Mrs. Mike (as my family always calls her) was a tea-leaf reader, and her husband Uncle Jack worked as a farm labourer. They met and married in Peace River and lived by turns in Drumheller and Calgary, Alberta. They adopted two of Uncle Jack’s nephews: my Uncle Bill (William Knox) and my Uncle Frank (Francis Knox), my dad’s brothers. The fictional account of her life aside, my great aunt Mary Katherine actually accomplished a lot in her own life, for real - so much so, that even today, 115+ years later, her actions seem monumental to me, her grand-niece.
Mary Katherine left Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland on a ship by herself without any family whatsoever. Later, she then left Boston, Massachusetts (where she was living by this time with her mother and two older sisters) and travelled by train to Calgary by herself to ‘visit’ her Uncle John. Years later, she travelled by herself to Hollywood (by then her two adopted boys were in their 20s) to sell the idea of her book, and returned a few years later to finalize the details of the film adaptation of her book, also titled Mrs. Mike. What a tough lady! And also, a good and sweet and loving one, according to the family stories that are passed down. Kathy’s real life was as interesting as her fictional one. Both of the ‘main characters’ whether in fiction or in life (Mrs. Mike the character and Mary Katherine O’Fallon Knox the woman) were determined to build and to succeed in having a happy and a worthwhile life in the coldest and northernmost sections of our great country.
At this point in my blog (CONTINUE SPOILER ALERT!), I would like to talk about the plot a bit, and point out some differences between the book and the movie versions of Mrs. Mike. In the book, ‘Katherine Mary’ explains the events as they occur while she travels by train to what is now called Alberta. The movie, however, begins at Katherine’s Uncle John’s ranch. In the book, our 16 year-old heroin meets Mike Flannagan for the first time on page 19...they are smitten with each other immediately, of course (how romantic!) In no time, he starts calling her Kathy. The film adapts some elements of the book’s dialogue word for word. Mike Flanagan says, “Rumor has it that a young lady has been seen in these parts and I thought I’d better check it out.” And so begins a love story for all time, don’t you think?
By chapter 4, the young couple are attending a dance. Kathy is a good dancer but poor Mike is not. Once again, the movie is faithful to the book in every detail. Upon returning to the uncle’s, a man appears at the door looking for help from the Mountie. A painful molar needs to be removed, so Katherine and Mike work together: they give the man enough alcohol to soothe his pain and working as a team, they are eventually able to extract the tooth that was causing the man so much agony (thankfully, dentistry has come a long way.) They become sweethearts AND a ‘medical team’ in such a short amount of time! How romantic is that?
Mike turns to Uncle John (as awkwardly as you can imagine) and says that he wants to marry Kathy.
Kathy quickly speaks up, saying to Mike, “Ask me.” Without any hesitation, Mike says these words:
“I love you, Kathy. I always have, and I think you’ve always known it. I’ll make you happy. I’ll give my life to it.”
Kathy quickly and lovingly says to Mike: “I’m going to marry you.”
Then, she turns to her uncle and says: “I’m going to marry him.”
No sweeter words could have been spoken by a young man and a young woman, I do declare! How romantic!
The plot develops and a lot more happens than I can tell you here. I suggest that you read the book yourself, if you’re curious – it’s still in print, and it even made Oprah’s List! If you do read it, you now know the real story behind the book, which is a fictionalized novel of a fictionalized life story…so many layers…
I have picked up my copy of this book quite often over the years. Each time I do, the book reminds me that while life might throw me a foul ball, it is up to me to pick up the ball and then throw it myself and to ‘keep on keeping on’ playing the game (of life). I am now 10 years older (what!?) than my great-aunt was when she died… a scary and yet, true fact. Her life was so different from mine, or so I once believed. Today, I realize though that we were not that different: two ladies trying to survive the best we could in a world of challenges, threats and confrontations and yet, despite it all, it was, for her as it is for me, also a world of peace, love and happiness. We travelled different routes and took different forks in the roads, but we both ended up where we were always meant to be with the ones we loved!
I’ve chosen to write about Katherine Mary O’Fallon Knox (1890-1954) and the book and film associated with her because I want to share the tremendous, personal bond which I have with her and her words. In 1949, she visited her nephew Tom in Halifax. My mother wrote a few words for a Dartmouth, N.S. newspaper about that visit: “Sitting in the modest living room of her nephew, Tom Knox, at Clarence Park, Dartmouth where she is visiting, she told of having the book filmed. The picture is to be filmed at Banff, Jasper Park. Anyone who has read the book will agree the perseverance and the unfailing optimism were two of Mrs. Mike’s most powerful weapons in her fight against the rigors of the North - blizzards and famine, murder and primitive births. These are character traits (which) the pink-cheeked, gray-haired Irish woman still has in abundance.” I would have been a year old at the time of that visit at my Uncle Tom’s. I have no memory of my great-aunt, of course, but her spirit was always within the walls of the homes which we lived in from then on. Her Irish spirit, that is!
Happy reading!
-Phyllis
