
Many performing artists have lived or attended school in Leaside over the years. They include the 1950s “Happy Gang” radio organist Kay Stokes; the novelty musical act The Videottes; saxophonist Warren Hill; Arrested Development actor Will Arnett – and jazz vocalist/Juno award winner Laila Biali and her percussionist husband, Ben Wittman.
I’d like to add another name to this list. She may not be as widely known as some Leaside celebrities. But she had a long and impressive career as a Canadian entertainer, and her story is worth telling.
Actor

Stephanie Taylor moved (from Walmer Rd.) to Leaside with her mother, Edith, in 1954. Stephanie lived at 107 Divadale Dr. and attended Leaside High School. From an early age, she loved to perform. In May 1955, when she was 12, she won four gold medals in the dance category at the Peel Music Festival. This was quickly followed by several acting roles, including a major part in the CBC televised drama Guest Appearance, broadcast in November 1957. While still in her teens, she was awarded a scholarship by the Medhurst Theatre School in Toronto, which advertised her in the Toronto Star as “an exciting new TV personality.” When she graduated in 1960, her high school yearbook, The Clan Call, dubbed her a “CBC star.”
Singer
By then, however, Stephanie had moved beyond acting to pursue a singing career. At 16, she auditioned for a role in CBC TV’s Country Hoedown and became one of the show’s regular singers and dancers, who also included none other than Gordon Lightfoot. Leveraging her experience on Country Hoedown, she soon joined another CBC show – Music Hop – hosted by a young Alex Trebek. There, she became part of a popular female singing trio known as The Girlfriends, who performed back-up vocals for Music Hop’s musical guests. By the mid-1960s, The Girlfriends had changed their name to The Willows and had recorded a hit single called My Kinda Guy, which rose to #15 on Canada’s pop music charts, gaining the group wide recognition.
Meanwhile, Stephanie was also pursuing her education, earning a B.A. and later an M.A. in psychology at the University of Toronto. After receiving her degrees, she took a few months off to work with troubled children but soon returned to singing.

For the next three decades and more – from the late 1960s to the early 2000s – Stephanie worked steadily as a solo artist, back-up singer, group singer and TV personality. She toured with Hagood Hardy, was a regular on the Tommy Hunter Show and the Bobby Vinton Show, hosted the CBC’s Canadian Express in 1978, and sang with such well-known vocal groups as Hampton Avenue, The Canadian Singers and The Laurie Bower Singers. She also did extensive studio work and commercials – including singing the familiar Saturday, Saturday TV jingle for Bell Canada’s long-distance service.
In 1970, Stephanie recorded her first and only solo album, I Don’t Know Where I Stand, in which she covered songs by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon. Music commentator Robert Williston called it a “magnificent example of soft pop rock,” while another reviewer praised it as “a classic album of sunshine pop with incredible jazz-infused vocals.”
Helping others
In later years, Stephanie devoted much of her time to helping others both within and outside the music industry. She assisted many young musicians who sought to break into the music business. She was also very involved with the Canadian Institute of the Blind (CNIB), making use of her significant musical talent and experience to transcribe music scores into Braille for the visually impaired.
Stephanie Taylor died of cancer in September 2009 at the age of 66. Following her death, a total of 46 online tributes were posted by people she had known, helped or worked with – praising her “kindness,” “glorious voice,” “brilliance and musicianship,” “gentle and unpretentious nature,” “zest for life,” “personal beauty and grace,” and “heart of gold.”
She was survived by her former husband, musician and composer Eric Robertson, and their son, James Robertson. Her mother, Edith Taylor, had died 11 years earlier while still living in her Leaside house on Divadale Dr. Both are buried in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.