Lucile Garner

Lucile Garner, later Lucile Garner Grant, (1910-2013) was Canada's first flight attendant. In this capacity she was the first woman to be employed by Trans-Canada Air Lines (later renamed Air Canada), where she worked from 1938-1943. She also designed TCA’s first inflight uniform in 1938. At first it was beige to match the airplane interior, and she was asked not to make it navy blue because pilots wore navy blue, but the beige was disliked by many and so by 1939 it was navy blue, although that created controversy with the pilots.

She was a trained nurse, which was part of her qualifications as a flight attendant. In her flight attendant duties, she monitored weather patterns, handled radio communications and created a menu for a transcontinental flight.

In 1941, she started a female flight attendant program at Yukon Southern Air Transport (later Canadian Pacific Airlines), but left the company the following year when she married Norman Dennison, at which time she had reached the retirement age of 32. Norman Dennison died in 1955, and she married Jack Grant in 1956.

She was interviewed for the book Canadian Maple Wings Association: Flight Attendant History, published in 2005.