Eleanor Townsend

Canadian fiddler, teacher and composer born in Dungannon (near Stratford) Ontario, January 8, 1944 and died in Barrie, Ontario, December 31, 1998. She studied classical violin from age 8 to 18 before turning to traditional fiddling. Married to Graham Townsend, she was inducted into the Fiddlers Hall of Fame (Oceola, NY) at Oceola, NY in 1984, and the Canadian National Fiddling Hall of Fame in 1998. She died as the result of a house fire. She also completed a book, The Townsend Old-Time Fiddle Method (Markham, Ont, 1996).