Cape Breton Deaths courtesy of CAPE BRETON GENEALOGY & HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE - [1]www.cbgen.org NEW MEMBERS WELCOME Vancouver Sun September 03, 2013 Tuesday The following obituary for Florence in today's Vancouver is from a Barra MacNeil Family. Her father was John P (Boy nickname) McNeil who was from Cape Breton and her mother was Jean B Gillies the daughter of John and Jean Gillies whom came to Vancouver with the 1924 Barra Group. I have no information on her father however her mother was as mentioned the daughter of John Gillies (1855), s/o Neil (1794), s/o Ewan (1765) s/o Evander Gillies (1740). FLORENCE McNEAL McNEAL, Florence Ann (nee McNeil) Florence passed away at Delta Hospital. Survived by husband David, sister Theresa and brother Alex (Maureen), as well as nieces and nephews. Florence was a Professor at Western Washington University, University of Calgary and UBC, and she retired to write full time. She was a poet, novelist, and an author of many books. Service will be held on Friday, September 6th, 2013 at 11:00 am at Sacred Heart Church, 3900 Arthur Drive, Ladner, BC, with burial to follow at Forest Lawn Cemetery, 3789 Royal Oak Avenue, Burnaby, BC., then Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Doctors Without Borders at: www.doctorswithoutborders.org, or to The Centre for Development and Peace at www.devp.org. Delta Funeral Home (604) 946.6040 : Florence was a well know writer as outlined in this article [2]Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature: Florence Mcneil Born in Vancouver and educated at the University of British Columbia, where she studied under Earle Birney, McNeil is the daughter of Scottish Hebridean emigrants. To her ancestry may be attributed her interest in narrative and in how the past impinges on the present. The poems in McNeil's collections-such as Walhachin (1972), Ghost towns (1975), Emily (1975), and Barkerville (1984)-often take the form of linked sequences, typically grounded in a historical person, tribe, place, or event. Walhachin and Barkerville (later adapted as a stage production and radio play) deal with specific extinct communities in the British Columbia interior; the title of Ghost towns is self-explanatory; and Emily is based on the life of Emily Carr. The overlanders (1982) is based on the trek of settlers from Canada West (Ontario) to the B.C. interior in 1862. The documentary impulse even extends to The rim of the park (1972), drawn from her own life. Besides the sense of historical wonder, her work is marked by imagistic incisiveness and, in later collections, by fluid diction and increased openness of form. Swimming out of history (1991) gathers selections from six previous collections and adds new poems. McNeil, who lives in Delta, British Columbia, has taught at Western Washington State College (now University), the University of Calgary, and the University of British Columbia, but has been a full-time writer since 1976. She is also active as a writer for children, having published Miss P. and me (1982), All kinds of magic (1984), Catriona's island (1988), and When is a poem: creative ideas for teaching poetry collected from Canadian poets (1980), besides editing the anthologies Here is a poem (1983), and Do whales jump at night? Poems for kids (1990). She won the Sheila A. Egoff Prize for children's literature in 1989. submitted by "Angus & Jan MacNeil" <[email protected]> References 1. http://www.cbgen.org/ 2. http://www.answers.com/library/Oxford+Articles-cid-27371084