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Nellie Mooney was born in Ontario on October 20th 1873 and had two brothers and three sisters. Nellie was the sixth child of John and Letitia. Her family spoke with an Irish accent. Nellie McClung’s nicknames were Windy Nellie and Calamitous Nell.  
 
In 1880 the Mooney’s, lured by reports of fertile soil and free land, left their marginally profitable farm to homestead in southern Manitoba.  
 
Nellie was ten before this pioneer district had a school, and was educated at Northfield Public School (Manitoba), and the Central Collegiate (Winnipeg), receiving a First Class Teachers Certificate at only age 16. She was an innovative teacher in Hazel, Manitou, and Treherne.  
 
On August 25th 1893 she married Robert Wesley McClung in Manitou where he was a Druggist she was 23 years old. .  
 
Nellie became active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a progressive organization that throughout western Canada supported votes for women as well as prohibition.  
 
In 1908 Doubleday published the first of her five novels, Sowing Seeds in Danny, a witty portrayal of a small western town also serialized in the Woman's Home Companion. In Canada it quickly became a best seller, and today is the only short story that has remained relevant.  
 
McClung was soon well known as an author of short stories and articles in Canadian and American magazines and was a popular speaker in demand throughout the West. The couple eventually had five children and in 1911 the family moved to Winnipeg.  
 
She was one of the "Famous Five" (Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy and Louise McKinney) who, in 1927, submitted a petition for an interpretation of the word "Person" in section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867. The decision on October 18, 1929, (Persons Case) found that "Person" includes female persons, thereby making women eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada.  
 
They now appear on the reverse of the $50 bill.  
 
In 1933 the McClung’s moved to Lantern Lane, a country home close to Victoria, B.C. and in 1936 Nellie McClung was appointed the first woman member of the board of governors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and in 1938 she served as a Canadian delegate to the League of Nations.  
 
At the Board of Broadcast Governors' meeting in Ottawa on November 10, 1940, shortly after her impassioned plea to suspend advertising of liquor on public radio, Nellie suffered a near-fatal heart attack. The attack felled her body, grown stout with years, but not her indomitable optimism.  
 
However, in 1943 continued illness forced her retirement from public life.  
 
She died at her home near Victoria, British Columbia on 1st September 1951 at the age of 78, and was buried in Saanich, B.C. Her gravestone simply reads "Loved & Remembered".  
 
 
An eight cent postage stamp was issued in honour of Nellie McClung on August 29, 1973 and her name appears on a plaque outside the Senate chamber placed in honour of the five women who initiated the "Person's Case".  
 
She was inducted posthumously into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame, and is commemorated by Nellie McClung Collegiate in Manitou and, in 2010, her Winnipeg home at 97 Chestnut Street was designated in the Memorable Manitobans: The Homes program.  
 
A bronze sculpture of McClung as a member of the “Famous Five” was unveiled on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building in June 2010.  
 
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_McClung