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ELLEN BARBARA VANSTONE
Born: Aug 01, 1955
Date of Passing: Oct 31, 2025
Send Flowers to the Family Offer Condolences or MemoryELLEN BARBARA VANSTONE
Hundreds of people loved Ellen Vanstone not least because she was the funniest person most of them had ever met. Born in Winnipeg to Irene, a nurse, and Doug, a credit manager, she grew up in a busy, lively home with her older sisters, Valerie and Dianne and younger brothers, Jay, Michael, and Lindsay.
A natural athlete, she rowed with the Winnipeg Canoe Club and played volleyball at the University of Winnipeg. She was also a natural-born writer: At age 10 she told Dianne that she was “compiling a dossier” on someone. She moved to Toronto to study journalism at Toronto Metropolitan (then called Ryerson), and bounded into jobs at every major newspaper and magazine, as an editor and a multiple-award-winning writer.
In 1999 she segued to a successful television writing career, co-creating the long-running hit Rookie Blue, as well as working on At The Hotel, Diggstown and Departure. With her ex-partner Art Niemi, she had a wonderful daughter, the musician Eliza Niemi. During the Covid pandemic, she moved back to Winnipeg to spend time with family where she received a bleak diagnosis, metastatic melanoma. She then moved to Toronto where she participated in several cancer studies - not for herself, but for those who come after her.
She remained funny until her last moments; her book about her cancer experience, Is This a Funny Story?, will be published soon. She died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones: Eliza and Eliza’s great friend Bren; Dianne and her daughter Ruth; Jay (whose wife Kaneena and their children Alec and Miles were unable to attend); Michael and his children Jakab, Clare and Leo, and his partner Casey; Lindsay (whose daughter Rena was unable to attend); and her dear friend Cathrin. (Ellen’s parents and sister Valerie predeceased her.)
All are welcome at her book launch celebration this coming spring (details to follow).
As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 10, 2025