Olive Evangeline Diefenbaker ( Freeman; April 14, 1902 – December 22, 1976) was the second wife of John Diefenbaker, the 13th Prime Minister of Canada. Diefenbaker proposed to her in Paddockwood, Saskatchewan, while she was a school teacher, and they were married on December 8, 1953. They had no children together, but they raised a daughter from her previous marriage to Toronto solicitor Harry Palmer, who died less than three years after the birth of the child. On her husband's death in 1979, her remains, buried in 1976 in Ottawa, were reburied in Saskatoon in 1979.
Life
Olive was born to two Nova Scotian parents. Her father was a Baptist Minister from Canning, Nova Scotia. Due to her father's occupation she grew up moving around the Canadian Prairies. Olive first met her second husband John Diefenbaker in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at a church where her father was working. John had just gotten back from fighting in World War I and was studying law at this time.
She attended McMaster University and the Ontario College of Education and in 1933 she started her career as a high school teacher. She wore a steel back brace due to several slipped disks. Olive reunited with John Diefenbaker in 1951 and they married in 1953 in Toronto.
Political influence
Olive Diefenbaker was a known supporter of the suffrage movement. She spoke French and considered her French grammar better than her English grammar, she would even address the French-speaking voters in French. She was a very talented conversationalist.