Daisy was born at Metcalfe, Ontario in 1888, the eldest of five children born to John A. MacGregor and his wife Sarah Caroline Weegar.  John was a son of a Scots immigrant father from Perthshire and an Irish second generation immigrant mother.  Sarah was the daughter of  United Empire Loyalist stock who had settled at Morrisburg, Ontario.  Her pride of heritage and principles were naturally derived from this background.

She was educated at Metcalfe, Ontario, then completed her formal education as a Normal School graduated Teacher.  Her father died in late 1901 thus she became at 14 years of age the prime bread-winner for her mother and the 4 siblings.  Teaching for a few years in and around Ottawa she soon found herself working for the Ottawa Citizen.  She met and became a good friend and confident of Charlotte Whitten; the two of them often teaming up to tackle one social problem or another.  One project that stands out in terms of Alberta is an event wherein Daisy convinced Charlotte to take on the investigation of the Alberta Welfare Ministry responsible for orphans (and children).  It was found that there were grievous wrongs in the departmental processes, even up to the "sale" of some newborns.  Daisy, Charlotte and the loyal, supportive members of the Alberta IODE Chapters had that problem redressed after a long, tough fight.

I am no stranger to IODE!  As a youngster I accompanied Grandmother to many a meeting, some in far corners of the province.  My clearest memory of those visits is the large number of "hair tossellings" I received from ladies I had never before met!  Heady stuff for a young boy of 6 or 7!

The National Chapter of Canada IODE