Background
Blewett was born Janet McKinshie in Scotia, Kent County, Ontario in 1862 to Scottish immigrants (some sources say 1872).
Blewett was born Janet McKinshie in Scotia, Kent County, Ontario in 1862 to Scottish immigrants (some sources say 1872).
She attended Saint Thomas Collegiate and in 1879 married Bassett Blewett and published her first novel, Out of the Depths.
Blewett was a regular contributor to The Globe, a Toronto newspaper and in 1898 became editor of its Homemakers Department. In 1919, assisted by the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, she published a booklet titled Heart Stories to benefit war charities. During this time she regularly lectured on topics such as temperance and suffragism.
She used the pseudonym Katherine Kent for some of her writing.
In 1925 Blewett was compelled by ill-health to retire her editorship. Foreign two years she lived with a daughter in Lethbridge, Alberta, before returning to Toronto in 1927.
She died in 1934 in Chatham, Ontario. After her death, fellow female journalist Bride Broder wrote in tribute:
Her brother, Archibald McKishnie, was also a noted writer
There is a simplicity about Mistress Blewett"s prose and verse that has made a wide appeal, and her gay-hearted attitude to life, the humorous twists she gave to little things, made her very welcome as a speaker at women"s gatherings.