Nerene Virgin, ‘trailblazer’ star of Today’s Special and Black history educator, dead at 77

Nerene Virgin, a former actor, public broadcaster, anti-racism advocate and educator also known for her trailblazing work, has died in Burlington, Ont., at age 77.

Virgin, a sixth-generation Hamiltonian, was a teacher before gaining prominence for playing Jodie on the TVO children’s show Today’s Special in the 1980s. She was also host of the CTV public affairs show Eye on Toronto. 

In the mid-1990s, Virgin worked for the CBC, including anchoring Saturday Report on CBC-TV and hosting on CBC Newsworld and Newsworld International. She later ran as a provincial Liberal candidate in Hamilton, and spent many years as a writer and educator of Canadian Black history, and as an anti-racism advocate.

Virgin’s family told CBC News in a statement she was surrounded by loved ones when her heart failed Monday morning at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington.

“I’m filled with joy that I even knew her,” her husband, Alan Smith, said in an interview with CBC Hamilton on Thursday.

“Her whole purpose … was to hold herself as a role model and act accordingly … to fight racism and to make Black people in Canada proud,” he said. 

“She broke so many barriers consistently through her life,” her nephew, L.A.-based DJ and music producer Amani (Burt Blackarach) Smith, said in an interview. “She was rewriting the script on how a Black person can move through the world.

“I’m so sad, but also, I got so much out of it — I’d be selfish to want more.  I couldn’t ask for anything more…. She helped guide me. We would talk for hours… I just loved her to bits.”

‘I had no idea how important that show would be’

Virgin’s role as Jodie on Today’s Special, which ran from 1981 to 1987, was beloved by many. 

“When I was doing Today’s Special, I had no idea at the time how important that show would be,” she said during a public talk hosted by CBC parliamentary reporter David Thurton at the Canadian Museum of History in 2023. “That would be the most important work that I would do, and to be constantly told by viewers … for their children to see someone like you, the character Jodie, who was empathetic, she was smart, she was capable, she was talented — for their children to see that individual was so motivating for those children.” 

Feedback from TV viewers helped motivate her to keep going, in what was a sometimes challenging environment for Black personalities, she said.

“I remember once we were signing albums, we recorded an album for Today’s Special … and a [Brown] woman came up with her little girl, and she … took my hand and she put something in my hand, and when I looked at it, it was this gold ring that I wear.

“She said, ‘The character of Jodie, you being Jodie, has been so important for my daughter to see, to inspire her to see what she can be. Her grandmother passed away recently and this was her grandmother’s ring, and we want you to have this, to say thank you to you because we’re so grateful,” Virgin recalled. 

WATCH | Fan Arianne Young on Nerene Virgin’s impact:

Nerene Virgin was ‘someone who felt like family,’ says fan

Nerene Virgin has died at the age of 77. A fan who remembers her as Jodie from Today’s Special explains why she thought Virgin was special.

Arianne Young, a resident of Scarborough in suburban Toronto, is one of the many people whose lives were impacted by Virgin’s Jodie role.

“It was a comfort and familiarity in seeing someone I recognized, like someone who felt like family, on screen,” Young told CBC Hamilton.

A ‘master class on how to treat people’

Virgin left a similar mark with her colleagues in broadcasting. 

Former TV producer Robert Lawlor worked with Virgin on a daily basis for four years at Eye on Toronto and remained a close friend for decades after. 

“I had a front-row seat to see how a true professional worked in front and behind the camera,” he said in an email. “In all my years in the TV business, I have never worked with anyone that could hold a candle to Nerene and her talents.”

Lawlor said Virgin gave him a “master class on how to treat people, how to expect more from yourself and how to not lose your self-worth when others are being less than they could be.”

Virgin had spoken out throughout her life about experiencing racism. 

In 2007, she ran as a Liberal candidate in the newly established Hamilton East-Stoney Creek riding. A local news reporter used a racial slur to refer to Virgin, prompting her to “successfully sue” Metroland Media, her family said.

She later launched Cabinda Consulting to help address discrimination in workplaces, and helped Ontario develop learning modules about Black history and Hamilton’s Committee Against Racism.

Evelyn Myrie is co-founder of the John C. Holland Awards — named after Virgin’s great uncle — and executive director of the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association. Myrie said Virgin pushed for the local paper to “acknowledge” its error and “do something progressive.” The paper ended up supporting a scholarship program with the John C. Holland Awards, which celebrate Black excellence, Myrie said. 

“She stood up against injustice” and “was a strong voice for the Black community,” Myrie said. “She’s left a rich history in the City of Hamilton, and we will miss her dedication and her very warm personality and smile.”

Later in life, Virgin spent many years giving presentations at Hamilton schools on Black history, writing biographies for Historica Canada — including one of Holland, a prominent Black community leader in Hamilton. She worked to help preserve the history of Stewart Memorial Church, a local Black church, as well as with museums, on exhibits featuring Black history.

“Nerene’s passion for history, and her talent for presenting it, made it an incredible honour to collaborate with her and she will be dearly missed,” Kevin Puddister, curator and general manager of Dundas Museum and Archives, said in an email. Puddister said Virgin and Smith had been working recently with the museum on helping to make exhibits more accessible online. 

Hamilton author Lawrence Hill said he has “profound respect” for Virgin, calling her “a friend who always encouraged me in my own literary career.”

Virgin’s nephew told CBC he was travelling to Canada on Friday to be with the family. Smith shared a post he wrote in 2021 on Instagram in honour of his aunt, where he said she was the “epitome of a trailblazer.” 

“Watching her reinvent herself every [five] years had a powerful effect on me. Her ability to stay fluid, current and optimistic was a source of power.”

Virgin is survived by her husband, two daughters, her son and grandson, and her siblings.

A celebration of life will take place on June 15 at 1 p.m. ET at Stewart Memorial Church in Hamilton — the church where her great uncle was a pastor.

The family said Virgin can also be seen in Finding Freedom on the Sixteen — a film by Anthony Sherwood that will be released on Feb. 26 at Film.Ca Cinemas in Oakville, Ont.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.