Long-lost daughter described as stunning model

CALGARY - International singing star Joni Mitchell has found her long-lost child, a daughter she conceived in Calgary and put up for adoption more than 30 years ago.

"Apparently her daughter was looking for her, too, so there's sort of a fairy tale ending," Bill Anderson - Mitchell's father - said Wednesday from his Saskatoon home.

"We've seen pictures and you can see similarities, and it's kind of funny that they're in similar businesses," added Anderson, saying his only granddaughter had been a model.

The girl - Mitchell's only child - was conceived while Mitchell was an art student living in Calgary 33 years ago. Mitchell's parents weren't told about the pregnancy until at least two years after the birth.

"We're quite happy. (She and Joni) have been together, and we're looking forward to meeting her later," said Anderson, who learned about 10 days ago that his granddaughter had been found.

He was reluctant to give further information, including what her name is, where she was found, and what she is doing.

"Joni is just gathering her thoughts to go public," said Bob Merlis of Los Angeles-based Reprise Records, Mitchell's record label.

Mitchell is expected to make a statement in Los Angeles - where she lives - within several days, he said. He would not provide further details.

The singer, who was born in Fort Macleod and raised in Saskatoon, was an art student at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology when she met the child's father, Brad McMath.

Neither had seen their daughter since 1965 when she was born in Toronto and put up for adoption.

The couple "really didn't want to get married and settle down," McMath, a Toronto photographer, told The Herald last December, when Mitchell began the search.

Private detectives traced the daughter, described as "a stunning model and dead ringer for mom in her flower-power, hit days."

Mitchell began singing in Calgary folk clubs, and went on to international acclaim after such hits as Both Sides Now and Woodstock.

Neither Mitchell nor McMath could be reached for comment Wednesday. The office of her Vancouver-based manager also refused to divulge details.