Founder of North America’s longest-running folk festival dies at 99

Ruth Jones McVeigh, founder of the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, increased tourism in the Sunshine City.

The woman who started North America’s longest-running folk festival, Mariposa Folk Festival, has died at age 99.

Mariposa Folk Festival confirmed to CTV News she died on Jan. 7 in Ottawa.

Ruth Jones McVeigh, born on Dec. 20, 1926, was not only the founder of the popular Orillia festival in 1961, but was also a decorator, gardener, renovator, author, wife and mother.

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, McVeigh grew up in the Great Depression but her mother somehow found a way to pay for her piano lessons. She moved to the Sunshine City in the late 1940s with her then husband, Dr. Casey Jones, who would later be a co-founder of the festival.

McVeigh was inspired to find what would bring tourism into Orillia, following a meeting held by the Chamber of Commerce. It came to her when she was sick in bed and thought of a folk festival that would have an all-Canadian lineup. No sooner did she and Jones use $250 of their own money to plan the first festival. She did all the jobs of several: wrote press releases, gave interviews and came up with a promotion that coincided with milk deliveries to summer cottages.

“A strong woman with an inspiring vision and plenty of determination, Ruth worked tirelessly to get the word out about Mariposa,” Mariposa Folk Festival President Pam Carter said.

McVeigh left Orillia after three years and went to Toronto, New York City and then Vancouver. That was when she took up writing and travelled across the country to promote the books she wrote, all on very different subjects: Fogswamp, about living with swans in the wilderness, Close Harmony about a seniors’ musical group and Shifting Ground,an autobiography focused on her 25-year marriage to a partner with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.

In 1987, when she found out the Mariposa Folk Festival might come to an end, she found a way to save it. When McVeigh was older, she found creative ways to attend the festival even if she couldn’t drive. For example, one year, she managed to catch a ride with one of the musicians set to perform at the festival.

McVeigh explained the magic of folk music in 2013 when she said, “A lot of the stuff that’s happening politically and sociologically will be translated into folk music because that’s what it is. It has variations. I was very upset one year when there was a lot of rock, but there’s so many crossovers now. There’s country-rock and country-folk and what-not. So, I don’t care as long as people are expressing their views and loving one another, which is what happens at folk festivals.”

“The Mariposa Folk Festival will remember her legacy and her integral part in the foundation of the festival,” Carter said. “More than 65 years later, Ruth’s vision will continue to create magical moments for the people of Orillia and those who attend the festival. When a woman like Ruth passes we have the opportunity to reflect on her impact and the memories she’s helped create.”

McVeigh leaves behind six children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.