Edna Staebler

Edna Staebler, CM (January 15, 1906 – September 12, 2006) was a Canadian author and award-winning literary journalist, best known for her series of cookbooks, particularly Food That Really Schmecks which is currently available in e-book form. While the book contains Mennonite recipes, the content also includes stories and anecdotes about life and home cooking in the rural areas of the Waterloo Region.

Contents

• 25th Anniversary of Lauriers Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non Fiction
• Other books by Edna Staebler
• Awards received by Edna Staebler
• References

She was born in Berlin, Ontario (later Kitchener) in 1906 and grew up there. Staebler received a BA from the University of Toronto and a teacher's certificate from the Ontario College of Education. Staebler married in 1933 but divorced in 1962. She wrote articles for Maclean's, Chatelaine, Saturday Night, Reader's Digest, Star Weekly and other newspapers and magazines; she has also written non-fiction with Canadian themes. In 1991, she established an award for creative non-fiction, awarded annually by Wilfrid Laurier University. Staebler was awarded membership to the Order of Canada in 1996.

She died of a stroke in Waterloo, Ontario, in 2006 at the age of 100.

Edna's birth certificate shows her name was originally registered as Cora Margaret Cress and later changed, (by annotation on birth certificate referencing a 1910 letter), to Edna Louise Cress. She was the daughter of machinist, John Gerp Cress (7 April 1875 – 23 October 1932) and Louise Cress (née Sattler) (24 January 1881 – 8 March 1972) who were married 15 July 1903.

A biography, To Experience Wonder, Edna Staebler: A Life (2003), was written by Veronica Ross; a collection of her diaries, Must Write, edited by Christl Verduyn, was published in 2005.