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MILES o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-18 published
Nova Scotia's marathon man
Cape Breton boy was Boston's most surprising victor
By Kevin COX Wednesday, June 18, 2003 - Page R5
Halifax -- Johnny MILES was first the determined champion, then the gentle grandfather of Canadian distance running.
His first major running prize was a sack of flour in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1922 -- he finished third in the three-mile race but was first to sprint by the store. After four years of training including sprints behind his grocery cart, the humble, unknown 20-year-old Cape Breton delivery boy and Sunday-school teacher stunned the running world by defeating its best athletes to win the prestigious Boston Marathon.
It was a win that Mr. MILES and his father had calmly predicted to a policeman and a race official the day before. But even Johnny MILES had his doubts on that chilly April Monday as he pounded along the 26.2-mile course on his 95-cent shoes from the Co-op store in his hometown.
At the 22-mile mark, Mr. MILES was running stride for stride with leader and Finnish running legend Albin STENROOS when he looked over and saw a blank and exhausted expression on his rival's face.
"I knew right there that I had him and I had to make a move," he recalled with the gleam of a fierce competitor in his eye in an interview 54 years later. "He was rubbing his side and he had a stitch, so I didn't look back. I speeded up and I think that took the heart out of him."
He is still widely hailed among running raconteurs as the most surprising victor in the 107-year history of the event. Mr. MILES's time -- then a world marathon record -- was so unbelievable that race officials measured the Boston course -- and found it 176 yards short of the classic 26-mile, 385-yard distance.
"I don't know what all the fuss is about," he said in an interview in 1995. "I had a God-given gift and I used it."
Mr. MILES, his father and his mother arrived in Boston by train a few days before the marathon. The day before the race, father and son walked the course, got lost and ended up asking a burly Irish policeman for directions and received some advice that was not exactly a vote of confidence.
"My son needs to know the route because he's entered in tomorrow's race." The friendly officer smiled and said, "Tell your son to just follow the crowd."
On race day, Mr. MILES wore a red, homemade maple leaf on a white undershirt. His performance shattered the 1924 record held by the other race favourite, Clarence DEMAR, the four-time winner of the event.
"That boy ran the best marathon since that Indian [Canadian Tom LONGBOAT] in 1907," a stunned Mr. DEMAR was reported to have said.
A year later, he again challenged the gruelling course but suffered an embarrassing setback when he had to withdraw from the race with serious burns to his feet. His dad had taken a pair of his 95-cent sneakers and shaved down the soles with a straight razor so they wouldn't be so heavy. His feet -- tops and bottoms -- had bled.
It was a rare retreat. Mr. MILES, who trained on rural Cape Breton roads, dominated Canadian distance running through the late 1920s and early 1930s. He captured the Boston crown again in 1929 and won a bronze medal at the British Empire Games in 1931 and also ran the marathon in the Olympic Games in 1928 and 1932.
Born in Halifax, England, on October 30, 1905, Mr. MILES moved with his family to Cape Breton the following year. He worked as a grocery delivery boy at the time of his big win. But his first job as a young teen was in the Cape Breton coal mines. He went to work there to help support his family when his father went off to fight in the First World War.
Mr. MILES left the mines a few years later and entered his first contest -- a three-mile race in Sydney, Nova Scotia -- with the hopes of winning some fishing supplies.
He is revered in his home province of Nova Scotia even though he moved to Hamilton, Ontario, to train and take a job with International Harvester in 1927.
After his victories, some parents even named newborn children after the marathon hero. One of those babies, Johnny Miles WILLISTON, went on to become a driving force in establishing the Johnny Miles Marathon in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
The victories on the tracks and roads by a local boy who had worked as a child coal miner at the age of 11 injected some joy and hope into Cape Breton's coal-mining towns at a time when the industry was going through tough times and work underground was brutish and dangerous.
After he hung up his thin-soled racing shoes in 1932, Mr. MILES became an ambassador for fitness and clean living. He became a manager at International Harvester and worked in many parts of the world for the company after being told by a company executive that he could make something of himself if he put the same effort into his work that he exerted in running.
When running regained popularity in the 1970s, he was startled to become a celebrity among the new set of competitors who recognized his accomplishments. While Quebec runner Gérard CÔTÉ would dominate the Boston Marathon in the 1940s, winning it four times, Johnny MILES's time of 2: 25:40 stood as the Canadian record for the event until Jerome DRAYTON ran 2: 14:46 in 1977.
He was taken aback in 1967 at being named to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
"That I should now be in the same illustrious company as the great stars of hockey, football, track and field, and other Canadian sports was a bit mind-boggling," he told author Floyd WILLISTON in the biography Johnny MILES: Nova Scotia's Marathon King in He was also caught off guard by being named to the Order of Canada in 1983.
"It's not going to change my life -- same hat size and shirt size," he told the New Glasgow Evening News.
Mr. MILES, who regularly attended races in the Hamilton area as a spectator in the 1980s, wondered how well he might have run with the technology offered to runners today.
"I think now I wouldn't eat steak before a race and I'd get these cushioned shoes and I'd know how to train," he said in an interview in New Glasgow at the marathon that was created and named after him in 1975 and still bears his name.
Mr. MILES and his wife Bess were fixtures at the Johnny Miles Marathon, which took place this past Sunday shortly after his death. Runners best remember him for his personal attention, anecdotes, quiet kindness and his enthusiasm for the sport.
Jerome BRUHM, a long-time Halifax runner and historian, remembered his first encounter with the running legend at the Johnny Miles Marathon in 1981.
"He was there and I'm nobody -- I'm just a runner. He came over and I said it was my first marathon and I was kind of nervous. He took me aside and talked to me and he said, 'Do you think you'll win the marathon'? Mr. BRUHM recalled this week. "I said, 'No, I'm a slow runner.' So, he said, 'Then go out there and do that -- finish the race and enjoy it.' He came over to me after the race and asked me how I did and how I felt. I thought that was fantastic that he would talk to me before the race and come over and check on me after the race."
He was a humble, personable man, Mr. BRUHM said.
"When he was inducted into the Canadian Running Hall of Fame, I went over to talk to him and he only wanted to talk about other people, not about what he had done."
Nova Scotia Premier John HAMM praised Mr. MILES for bringing international attention to his home province.
"We will always remember with pride his athletic accomplishments at the Boston Marathon and numerous other competitions as well as his success in business and accomplishments in life," the Premier said Monday.
In 2001, Boston Marathon officials celebrated the 75th anniversary of his startling 1926 win -- but at the age of 95, Mr. MILES said his health prevented him from attending the festivities. However, he promised to try to attend the 75th anniversary of his last Boston triumph.
Will CLONEY, long-time Boston Marathon official, had only praise for Mr. MILES. " There hasn't been a Johnny MILES in Boston since Johnny MILES."
Now there never will be.
Kevin COX is Atlantic correspondent of The Globe and Mail. He has completed 50 marathons -- including the Johhny Miles Marathon and the Boston Marathon.

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MILES o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-06-23 published
Elsie Maud MILES
By John HIPKIN Monday, June 23, 2003 - Page A16
Mother, grandmother, wife, friend and survivor. Born November 11, 1909, in Hackney, London. Died April 27, 2003, in Moncton, New Brunswick, of natural causes, aged 93.
My mother Elsie's birth in a gaunt Victorian hospital almost a century ago was shrouded in secrecy, so we shall probably never know how she came to be the child of maidservant Alice Maud HOLLOWAY and an anonymous father. Consistent with her unknown origins, she was shifted throughout her infancy and girlhood by a remote and faceless authority from one foster home to another, in one at least of which she was routinely subject to unspeakable abuse.
Such were her difficult beginnings, but as the hundred-plus family members and Friends who attended her funeral can testify, hers was a life of triumph over adversity and an inspiring example of how a person can actively fashion their own fate.
At the age of 14, Elsie became a trainee maid in a London gentleman's household, where she learned the domestic arts that she scrupulously and proudly practised throughout the rest of her life as a wife and mother.
My father Jack was a regular customer at a tobacconist's opposite Hammersmith police station, where my mother later worked as a sales assistant. He was a mounted police officer with a tall and manly figure, jet-black hair and a winning way with women. My mother fell for him and they had three children: myself, Naomi and Anthony. But Jack left my mother, and during the Second World War, she was unsupported, unemployed and homeless. These were the days before the welfare state as we currently know it, so we were often forced to sleep in the waiting rooms of London train stations, which invited the stern attentions of the magistracy, who insisted that we children be taken into care. And so we were: I went to Dr. BARNARDO's children's home and my brother and sister went into adoption.
In 1941, mother joined the Auxiliary Territorial Services women's army. During her service years she met, fell in love with and married Paul MILES, an army captain and son of a Sussex clergyman. She had three children with him: David, Pamela and Hugh.
I didn't keep in touch much with my mother after I went to university in the immediate postwar years, but by the early Seventies I had re-established contact. I learned that she and her husband had emigrated to Canada in 1956, where Paul had taken up a position with a refrigerator company. In the 30 or so years that followed, we restored our relationship, and I was also reunited with my sister, living with her own family in Nottingham.
A year and a half ago, I was also reunited with my brother, who is now a deacon at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. And so it was that at mother's funeral, all six of her children and many of her grandchildren were present to bid her farewell.
Mother gladdened the hearts of all who knew her. She was filled with joy, despite a life that began with difficulty, and which had known disappointment and destitution. But she was finally fulfilled in motherhood, marriage and Friendship.
Death's claim is only a partial one. What remains in us and in our hearts is the living spirit of a woman who overcame adversity and took delight in her good fortune and her large and reconciled family.
So even in that most awesome encounter of all -- with death itself she has finally triumphed.
John HIPKIN is Elsie Miles's eldest child.

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MILILLO o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-30 published
Harry Cawthorpe Daniel KIERANS Died suddenly 25 July 2003.
Born Seven weeks early and weighing only 4lbs. 2 oz., 20th March, 1953 in Toronto, Harry clung to life and eventually joined his large family in Sudbury, Ontario. Although never as robust as his siblings, Harry earned all but four credits on his Bachelor of Arts degree. While at York University, he was stricken with schizophrenia at age 19, so severely that he was hospitalized in Vancouver from time to time where he had moved to be closer to his family. Cherished Husband and best friend of Silvana MONNO for 21 years and very proud father of his loyal son Christopher. Beloved son of Thomas Wm. KIERANS, (Saint John's) and Mary (MULLIGAN) KIERANS, Coquitlam and dearly loved brother of Sr. Mae KIERANS, North Bay, Tom (MariJo) Montreal, Murray, Collingwood, Brenda WAHLEN (Len), Coquitlam, Michael, (Dagmar), Prague, Teresa SPURR (Jim), Coquitlam, Kathleen WALKER, Vancouver, and Paul, Burnaby. Harry's family have been especially supported by Rosa and Vitto MILILLO. Harry will be sadly missed by many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. In Spite of his long and debilitating illness, Harry held onto his senses: sense of family, sense of loyalty, and sense of humour. Harry's determined effort to live with dignity and grace under a very heavy burden will always be remembered with loving pride by his family who thank God for the great gift his life has been to all of us. Prayers will be offered on Wednesday, July 30, 2003 at 8: 00 p.m. from the chapel of Forest Lawn Funeral Home 3789 Royal Oak Avenue, Burnaby. Funeral Service will be held Thursday, July 31, 2003 at 10: 30 a.m. from Our Lady of Fatima Parish 315 Walker Street, Coquitlam. In lieu of flowers, donation may be made to the Christopher Kierans trust fund at the funeral, or to a mental health charity of your choice. 'Good night sweet prince: and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest'

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MILLAR o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-19 published
BROWN, Kenneth, M.D., C.M., (F.R.C.S.C)
Born 1924 in Montreal, Québec, died November 18, 2003, North Bay, Ontario. Lovingly remembered by his wife, Toni and his children, Susan (Don) PRIEBE of North Bay, Pam (Tom) DAWES of Thunder Bay, Ken (Rose) BROWN of Port Perry, Heather ROBERTSON of Calgary, Alison (Bruce) MILLAR of Canmore, Toni BROWN (Dick AVERNS) of Vancouver, and Meredith BROWN (Ronnie DREVER) of Montreal. Especially loved by his grandchildren, Sarah, Nik, Heidi, Kim, Lisa, Eric, Graeme, Laura, Evan, Geoff, Cam, Aidan, Riley, Nelson, Brooke, and Lily. Also survived by his brother, James (Jean) BROWN of South Carolina. Friends may call at the Martyn Funeral Home, 464 Wyld Street, North Bay, on Thursday, November 20, 2003 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday November 21, 2003, at Christ Church Anglican, Vimy Street, North Bay. If desired, donations to the Parkinson Society Canada would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.
Husband * Father * Grandpa * Friend * Surgeon
We'll miss you

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MILLARD o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-01 published
WEIR, E. Marie
Born July 26, 1923. Died March 27, 2003 at Richmond Hospital. Born in Banff, Marie grew up in Calgary. A graduate of the University of Alberta, she became a professional secretary working in many locations including New York, Chicago, Toronto and Vancouver. In Vancouver, Marie worked with The Arthritis Society and later with Dr. Barry KOSHLER in Richmond. Throughout her long productive life and despite her final illness she was always sunny, witty, a great raconteur and a joy to be with. Marie is survived by many loving cousins, Dr. Alex ROBINSON, Dr. Harold and Jean ROBINSON, Peggy and Hubert MILLARD and families. She will be missed by her friend and colleague Marylin CHOY. A Memorial Service and Celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, April 5th at 4 p.m. at Ryerson United Church, 2195 West 45th Avenue, Vancouver, Rev. G. PATERSON officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made, in her memory, to the British Columbia Cancer Foundation.

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MILLARD o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-11 published
Pint-sized scrapper 'liked wrestling more than eating'
Stellar career in the ring was marred only by the near-miss loss of an Olympic medal
By Tom HAWTHORN, Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, December 11, 2003 - Page R11
He was a Regina stonecutter who used his strength to good effect in the wrestling ring. Vern PETTIGREW, who has died at 95, was an athlete whose career was marred only by the near-miss loss of an Olympic medal.
Competing for Canada, Mr. PETTIGREW finished in fourth place in the featherweight division of the freestyle-wrestling competition at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The 28-year-old stonecutter with a chiselled physique had dominated his Swedish opponent when the match suddenly ended with Mr. PETTIGREW disqualified for using an illegal hold. The Swede went on to claim the bronze medal, while Mr. PETTIGREW spent the next 67 years contemplating the unfairness of a verdict that denied him Olympic glory.
"One call made all the difference," he told The Regina Leader-Post in 1996. "You can't quarrel, but it was terrible. It was a legal hold, but they said it was illegal. I could have been standing on the podium, but you can't cry about it."
Even before the devastating verdict, Canadian wrestlers had expressed their unhappiness with the officiating at the tournament.
The team felt European officials, versed in the more rigid dictates of the Greco-Roman discipline, were unfamiliar with the rules of freestyle, or catch-as-catch-can, wrestling. For instance, the Canadians relied heavily on leg holds, only to discover the judges did not award points for the manoeuvre. Canada claimed only one of 18 freestyle medals awarded at the 1936 Games, a bronze for Joseph SCHLEIMER, a lightweight from Toronto.
Mr. PETTIGREW retained his amateur status after returning from the Games, continuing to dominate his weight class in Canada. He stepped away from the mat as a competitor in 1940, having won five national championships. He was also known as an eager participant in exhibition matches, willing to take on all comers.
"I liked wrestling more than eating," he once said.
John Vernon PETTIGREW was born on March 30, 1908, in Durham, Ontario He moved with his family to Biggar, Saskatchewan., two years later, before settling in Regina in 1919.
Wrestling was perhaps a natural sport for a pint-sized boy born as part of a baker's dozen brood of PETTIGREWs. He learned the formal rules and tactics of the sport at the old Young Men's Christian Association in Regina, "a stinkin' Y with a pool as big as my kitchen," he told the Leader-Post.
Wrestling was conducted in a small basement room reached by a long flight of stairs. "It was never washed. No wonder we got big scabs on our knees."
He claimed his first Dominion featherweight crown in 1933 and dominated his weight division in Saskatchewan, where he won 10 provincial championships.
He was accompanied on the long journey by train and ocean liner to Germany in 1936 by fellow Regina wrestler George CHIGA. A 210-pound (95-kilogram) heavyweight, Mr. CHIGA dwarfed his featherweight friend, who weighed closer to 134 pounds (61 kilograms).
One of the more memorable experiences in the athlete's camp was Mr. PETTIGREW's first viewing of that science-fiction dream called television. He also met the great American track athlete Jesse OWENS, whose humility and friendliness in trying circumstances Mr. PETTIGREW never forgot. Like many of the athletes, however, Mr. PETTIGREW remained unaware of, or unconcerned about, the intentions of the Nazi regime, for which the Games were a propaganda exercise.
A first-round victory over Karel KVACEK of Czechoslovakia impressed Canadian Press correspondent Elmer DULMAGE, who wrote that Mr. PETTIGREW "gives a pretty fair imitation of lightning."
The Regina wrestler defeated Marco GAVELLI of Italy and Hector RISKE of Belgium, but was pinned at two minutes, 13 seconds of a fourth-round match by Francis MILLARD of the United States. The controversial disqualification against Gosta JONSSON of Sweden eliminated Mr. PETTIGREW from the medals. Kustaa PIHLAJAMAKI of Finland won the featherweight gold, while Mr. MILLARD took silver and Mr. JONSSON got bronze.
Mr. PETTIGREW retired from wrestling not long after joining the Regina fire department in 1939. He retired as battalion fire chief in 1973. He then worked part-time at a local funeral home, which years later would handle his remains.
Mr. PETTIGREW, who died in Regina on October 29, leaves a daughter and two sons. He was predeceased by his wife Jean; by his eldest son, Robert; and by all 12 of his siblings.
In all the years since leaving Berlin, he never quite overcame the sense that he had been robbed of a chance for an Olympic medal. "It always bugs you," he said.

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MILLER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-01-15 published
Maryann Catherine VERNER
In loving memory of Mary Ann Catherine VERNER, June 9, 1939 to January 6, 2003.
Maryann VERNER, a resident of R. R. #1, Evansville, passed away at the Manitoulin Health Centre, Mindemoya, on Monday, January 6, 2003 at the age of 63 years. She was born in Toronto, daughter of the late Wesley and Catherine DAY. Mary Ann was a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and through her talents as a musician, had a wide range of experience, having played for the Billy Graham Crusade, the People's Church in Toronto, organist at Centennial Rouge Church in Toronto for 10 years, and organist at Lyon's Memorial United Church in Gore Bay for about 12 years. Before her marriage to Harry on December 19, 1959, she had worked as an assistant at CBC, working with Norman JEWISON in Toronto and New York. She had also worked as a secretary for Eaton's and Capitol Records. She also enjoyed handcrafts, but her greatest enjoyment was her music and family. Dearly loved wife of Harry VERNER of Evansville loved mother of Catherine and husband Doug REIMER of Scarborough Gregory and wife Sherry of Sault Ste. Marie James and wife Terry of Burnt River and Amy, friend Paul MILLER of Hamilton. Proud grandmother of Stephen, Jacob, Kari, Justin, Silken, Nathan and Sarah and three great grandchildren.
The funeral service was conducted at the Burpee Mills Complex on Thursday, January 9, 2003 with Reverend Mary Jo Eckert Tracy and Mr. Erwin Thompson officiating. Spring interment in Mills Cemetery.
Culgin Funeral Home

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MILLER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-05-07 published
MILLER
-In loving memory of my daughter, Nancy, who passed away May 3, 2000.
-Always remembered and loved by Mom. (Jean McCAULEY)

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MILLER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-06-04 published
Joan HANER (née BOCK)
After a courageous struggle with cancer on Wednesday, May 28, 2003 at the age of 68.
Beloved wife of Harold for 25 years. Cherished mother of Jim STEWARD/STEWART/STUART (Debbie,) Bud STEWARD/STEWART/STUART, Debbie WHALEN (Terry), Lorrie STADNISKY (Steve), Heather BOUCHARD (Eric), Shelley SAGHAFI (Abdi), Kevin STEWARD/STEWART/STUART (Liz) and Pamela BORETZ.
Loving grandmother of 27 and great grandmother of 21. Sister of Ruth STEELE (Jim,) Rosella HARRISON (Orville) and Evelyn TARABAS (Pete.) Daughter of the late Ernest and stepdaughter of Frances BOCK. Aunt to several nieces and nephews. Friends called the Arthur Funeral Home and Cremation Centre on Friday, May 30, 2003. The funeral service was held on Saturday May▼ 31 with Reverend Phil MILLER officiating. Interment Greenwood Cemetery.

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MILLER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-08-06 published
Reverend Jackson W. STRAPP
In loving memory of Jackson STRAPP who passed away at the Sault Area Hospital on Saturday, July 19, 2003 at the age of 77 years. Beloved husband of Marion (WEDGE) and father of their four sons Bruce, Bryan, David and Craig. Loving son of the Reverend Howard and Mrs. Fannie STRAPP. Dear brother of Keith (predeceased) and sister-in-law Carolyn (McKINNON.) Friends and family joined in the memorial service at Sault Sainte Marie▼ on July 23 with the Reverend Phil MILLER officiating.

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MILLER o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2003-11-19 published
Mary Elizabeth McHARG " Bette"
In loving memory of Mary Elizabeth McHARG " Bette" who passed away peacefully at the Manitoulin Health Centre, Little Current on November 11, 2003 at the age of 80 years.
Bette was the assistant clerk for the town of Little Current, and the Justice of the Peace for many years. Born on September 12, 1923 to Thomas and Elizabeth (HOWE) TRIMBELE. Predeceased by husband Raymond. Loving mother of John. Cherished by grand_son Matthew. Will be missed by sister Peggy FISCHER (husband Homer predeceased,) brother Thomas (predeceased) and wife Jenette TRIMBELE. Remembered by cousins Thomas and wife Sandi FISCHER, Madelene CAVE, Judy MILLER and Jane FISCHER. Memorial service was held on Friday, November 14, 2003 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Little Current. Cremation.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-01-16 published
Bluesman made his mark
Canadian harpist's brush with greatness was frustrated by his battle with the bottle
By Bruce Farley MOWAT Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, January 16, 2003, Page R9
He will be remembered for creating some of the high water marks in the history of popular music in Canada. Blues harpist Richard NEWELL, also known as King Biscuit Boy, has died. He was found dead at his house in Hamilton on January 5.
Richard NEWELL's story is the stuff of legend, but not legendary. The Oxford Canadian Dictionary defines legend as "a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical, but unauthenticated."
Nearly all the career anecdotes surrounding King Biscuit Boy have been verified. Yes, he really was recruited for the Allman Brothers in 1969, for Janis JOPLIN's Full Tilt Boogie Band in 1970 and for a mid-seventies session with Aretha FRANKLIN. The stellar Houston blues guitarist, Albert COLLINS was recording a version of Mr. NEWELL's Mean Old Lady, before he died in 1994.
Mr. NEWELL, though, would rarely volunteer to offer up such information, unless you prodded him for it. He didn't think it was important.
He was born the son of Lily and Walter (Dick) NEWELL, an Royal Air Force airman stationed in Canada during the Second World War. Richard NEWELL developed an early interest in music, from the country of Hank WILLIAMS Sr. to the jump blues of Louis JORDAN, to the frenetic sounds of such original rock 'n' rollers as Little Richard. At age 12, he purchased his first harmonica after discovering the blues via late-night AM radio.
Mr. NEWELL spent seven years rehearsing his ever-expanding collection of blues 45s, which he purchased on regular hitchhiking forays to Buffalo. Few of his Friends at the time were even aware that he played harmonica and guitar.
In 1963, Ronnie COPPLE's sock-hop rock 'n' roll group, the Barons, recruited Mr. NEWELL as its lead singer. Mr. NEWELL had heard a recording of their instrumental original, Bottleneck, and came by with an record by the prototypical American electric blues slide guitarist, Elmore JAMES.
Within weeks of his joining, the group was transfigured into the flat-out, deep blues band, The Chessmen Featuring son Richard. The sound was guitar driven and harmonica-heavy, certainly not the type of thing you'd find at the average mid-sixties Southern Ontario teen dance. The band made it to Europe the following summer, playing successful shows at U.S. Army bases to predominantly black audiences.
Back in Canada, Mr. NEWELL would go on to become the lead singer of Richie Knight and The Mid Knights in 1966. He also made his debut professional recording at this time, as a session harmonica player on a recording by country singer, Dallas HARMS, best known for writing such hits as Paper Rosie for American country singer Gene WATSON.
When ex-Mid Knight and future Full Tilt Boogie band member Rick BELL was recruited for the Ronnie HAWKINS band in 1968, Mr. NEWELL's name came up. After one audition, he was hired on the spot and rechristened with the royal King Biscuit Boy moniker, a title he was never totally comfortable with.
Back in his native Arkansas, HAWKINS had rehearsed in the basement of the old KFFA radio station where blues harpist, Sonny Boy Williamson 2nd (Rice MILLER,) did his King Biscuit Flour Hour broadcasts. To HAWKINS, Mr. NEWELL must have sounded like a letter from home.
When JOPLIN scooped BELL and guitarist John TILL from HAWKINS's band early in 1970, Mr. NEWELL and drummer Larry ATAMANUIK were left with the task of re-assembling the band. That group would become the first King Biscuit Boy-led outfit, Crowbar. In a fit of pique, HAWKINS had inadvertently given the band its name in an exchange of parting shots at the Grange Tavern in Hamilton. "You guys are so dumb," he yelled, "you could fuck up the moving parts of a crowbar."
As the bandleader, singer, harmonica player and guitarist on Official Music, Mr. NEWELL was responsible for building a razor-sharp and singularly intense sound. The rehearsals for these sessions were apparently tension-laden affairs, but the payoff came when the album muscled its way on to the Canadian charts, (without the benefit of Canadian-content regulations), the fastest-selling domestic release to date.
Mr. NEWELL and the band would part ways after King Biscuit Boy and Crowbar had scored on the singles chart with the traditional piece, Corrina, Corrina. In 1971, Crowbar (without King Biscuit Boy) earned a place on the bestseller charts with a song that was to become a perennial Canuck rock anthem. Oh, What a Feeling was the first domestic single to take advantage of the newly legislated Canadian-content rules for broadcasting.
Fate intervened throughout the following years to rob Mr. NEWELL of his career momentum. The backing band he assembled to promote Good 'Uns, the 1971 followup to Official Music, was beginning to work on a third album, when the funding for it ran out.
With the momentum lost, that unit disintegrated, with guitarist Earl JOHNSON leaving to form the hard-rock outfit, Moxy.
In 1974, sessions produced by Allen TOUSSAINT, the architect of many a New Orleans Rhythm and Blues classic, would culminate in the Epic label release of a self-titled recording. Mr. NEWELL would tour the United States the following year with The Meters (featuring future members of the Neville Brothers) as his backup band. When the Epic label cleaned house later that year, though, he was one of the acts dropped.
In 1972, Mr. NEWELL wed Jacqueline WILLETTS but found that married life did not curb his increasingly frequent drinking binges. The couple divorced in 1979. Alcoholism was also the source of most of his professional woes for the better part of his life, as key shows were either cancelled, or worse, rendered into shambles. Musicians who worked with him tended to admire him, but found it incredibly frustrating that such an enormous talent was being squandered.
At several junctures in his career, Mr. NEWELL managed to quit drinking. Of the three albums he recorded and released in the eighties and nineties, two were the direct dividends of his abstinence. Those recordings earned him Juno nominations, in 1988 for Richard NEWELL aka King Biscuit Boy,and in 1996 for Urban Blues Re: NEWELL. The latter is still in print on Holger Peterson's Stony Plain label. Official Music, along with Good'Uns and Badly Bent, a best-of compilation, are available on the Unidisc label (http://www.unidisc.com). The rest of the King Biscuit Boy catalogue, including the 1980 Mouth of Steel album, is out of print.
In 2000, Mr. NEWELL's mother died and he left regular stage work, preferring the seclusion of his home in the central Mountain neighbourhood of Hamilton. His last recordings include a version of Blue Christmas, available on the Hamilton Hometown Christmas Compact Disk compilation assembled by saxophonist and long-time friend, Sonny DEL RIO. An original composition, Two Hound Blues, along with material recorded by DEL RIO and Mr. NEWELL in the late seventies (the Biscuit With Gravy sessions) is planned for release this year.
Mr. NEWELL, who leaves his father Dick, brother Walter (Randy,) and son Richard James Oddie, made his last public performance in a cameo appearance with The Little Red Blues Gang on September 12, 2002, at Mermaids Lounge in Hamilton. The 60 or so audience members present were treated to a version of his hit, Corrina, Corrina, which is strange, because he never particularly cared for that song.
Richard Alfred NEWELL, musician; born March 9, 1944, in Hamilton died in Hamilton, January 5, 2003.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-01-18 published
Former Member of Provincial Parliament, journalist Frank DREA dead at 69
By Jonathan FOWLIE Saturday, January 18, 2003, Page A25
Frank DREA, Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament of 14 years and a journalist best known for his consumer advocacy column in the Telegram, died Wednesday.
He was 69.
"He accomplished a great deal and was very tenacious," his wife Jeanne said last night.
"He used to say, 'What's the use of having power if you don't use it to help people?' He did, and I think that's how he'd like to be remembered."
First elected to office in 1971 as the Member of Provincial Parliament for Scarborough Centre, Mr. DREA was known as a crusader who often fought for the underdog.
In 1977, Mr. DREA was appointed to the cabinet of then premier Bill DAVIS, where he served as Minister of Correctional Services, of Consumer and Commercial Relations and of Community and Social Services.
During his time in politics, he worked to reform Ontario's prison system, introduced legislation to protect workers and tradespeople and helped to modernize the insurance industry.
Mr. DREA opted to leave politics in 1985 after Frank MILLER took over as premier and shuffled him out of the cabinet.
An avid horse-racing fan, Mr. DREA was named chairman of the Ontario Racing Commission later that year.
"Frank was tough, but he was fair," Premier Ernie EVES said in a statement yesterday.
"He will be missed by colleagues from both sides of the house," added Mr. EVES, who worked with Mr. DREA for a number of years during the early 1980s.
Toronto Sun columnist Peter WORTHINGTON, who worked with Mr. DREA at the Telegram before it folded, remembered Mr. DREA last night as an aggressive and driven reporter.
"He was certainly one of the Telegram's strongest street reporters," Mr. WORTHINGTON said.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-05 published
Died This Day -- John Harvey MILLER, 1987
Wednesday, February 5, 2003, Page R7
Journalist and speechwriter, political aide born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1934; in 1957, arrived in Canada; worked at various times for The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Telegram, Canadian Magazine and The Toronto Star; in 1970, became press officer for Tory government led by Premier Bill DAVIS; appointed key aide to DAVIS, writing his major policy addresses; died of cancer.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-02-19 published
SMITH, Margaret Blakely (née BURNS)
Died peacefully at the Scarborough Hospital, Grace Division, of cancer, on February 16, 2003. Daughter of Charles BURNS and Sara Margaret BLAKELY. Sister of Katharine Steele (BURNS, YOUNG) PICKEN. Beloved wife of James Edwin (Ted) SMITH and a wonderful mother to Katharine Blakely SMITH and James Charles SMITH (Cheryl.) Grandmother of Althea ALISON and Michelle Meagan SMITH, and ''Grandma'' to Robin MILLER and Ciera and Ryan GAUTREAU. Born in Ottawa, she was a graduate of Glebe Collegiate and Queen's University where she was a member of the Senior Ladies hockey and basketball teams. For five years she enjoyed teaching high school in Manotick until her marriage to Ted in 1948. The family moved from Ottawa to Toronto in 1963. A memorial service will be held at the Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2737 Bayview Avenue (south of Hwy. 401), on Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 11: 00 a.m. Spring interment of cremated remains will be held in Norway Bay, Quebec. If you wish, in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Trinity Memorial Fund, 2737 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M2L 1C5.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-04-10 published
POTTER, Kent Morey
Died suddenly from illness, at home, March 22, 2003, at age 52.
Kent leaves behind family and Friends who loved him, and who will miss his intellect, insight, open-mindedness, and loyalty. Kent's family is his Aunt, Mrs. Kathryn ELLIG (Mrs. George William POTTER,) his cousin Mrs. Darla MILLER (POTTER,) her husband James, their children Erin, Bryan, and Jonathan, and his cousin Robert ISLAND.
In his career as a travel writer and editor, Kent worked for 'The Toronto Star' and Maclean Hunter's 'Canadian Travel Courier'. More recently, Kent worked as a freelance editor.
Cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held Saturday, April 12, 1 p.m. at St. David's Anglican Church, 49 Donlands Avenue, opposite the Donlands subway station.
Memorial donations may be made to the animal shelter/rescue organization of your choice.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-05-22 published
Trumpeter ran jazz club
By Mark MILLER Thursday, May▲ 22, 2003 - Page R7
Toronto -- He was the voice of doom.
Every so often, out of the blue, he would call.
"Mark," he barked loudly into the telephone. "Paul Grosney," he continued, his voice dropping on the third syllable. "We've lost another one."
And now we've lost Paul GROSNEY. The Toronto trumpet player who kept the local community informed of deaths in the world of jazz has himself passed away. He died Saturday in his sleep at his Toronto home. He was 80.
An amiably gruff man with the proverbial heart of gold, Mr. GROSNEY liked to be in the know. As a teenager in his native Winnipeg, he would make the acquaintance of the American musicians who passed through town -- members of vibraphonist Red Norvo's band, for example, which played a fortnight at the Odd Fellows Hall.
"In those two weeks," Mr. GROSNEY remembered in 1994, "I got to know those guys very well. I got them up in the morning and put them to bed at night."
Mr. GROSNEY, who was born on February 10, 1924, spent some time in Toronto and New York after travelling overseas with an Royal Canadian Air Force variety show during the Second World War. Later, he served as the bandleader in several Winnipeg nightclubs, notably the Rancho Don Carlos, where he played for many important American entertainers.
In 1959, he returned to Toronto and continued his career in hotel, theatre and studio orchestras. He also ran a booking agency and acted as music director from 1973 to 1984 for the now-legendary jazz club Bourbon Street, where he matched visiting American stars with local rhythm sections.
In later years, Mr. GROSNEY led his own jazz group, the Kansas City Local, and was a featured soloist with other Dixieland and Swing orchestras. His recordings include the 1998 Compact Disk I'm Just Wild About Harry, a tribute to the American trumpeter Harry James.
Mr. GROSNEY's connections extended beyond music to show business more generally. He enjoyed a second career writing sketch material for Canadian and U.S. television variety shows, including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Bizarre.
He leaves his son Michael and sister Jeanette BLOCK.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-07-12 published
Moms always liked him best
The Happy Gang's popular lead singer had a good reason for saying hello to his mom whenever the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio classic was on air
By James McCREADY Special to The Globe and Mail Saturday, July 12, 2003 - Page F10
The double knock on the door occurred every afternoon at 1.
"Who's there?"
"It's the Happy Gang."
"Well, come on in!"
Then Eddie ALLEN, Bert PEARL, Bobby GIMBY and the rest of the cast of Canada's most popular radio program would break into "Keep happy with the Happy Gang."
Mr. ALLAN, the show's main singer, accordion player and sometimes emcee, died last week, leaving Robert FARNON as the gang's sole surviving member.
Every day as many as two million Canadians tuned in The Happy Gang, which led the national ratings for most of its run on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1937 to 1959. Until television came along in 1952, Mr. ALLEN and his cast mates were among the most famous people in the country.
The show was the creation of Mr. PEARL, who'd come to Toronto from Winnipeg (his real name was Bert SHAPIRA) to study medicine. To pay for his education, he started playing piano on radio with a band that included violinist Blain MATHE, organist Kay STOKES and Mr. FARNON, a trumpet player who would go on to be the most successful of them all.
The band morphed into the Happy Gang and Mr. PEARL was the driving force behind it. Eddie ALLEN was hired as the fifth member of the troupe and stayed with the program until it went off the air.
He was born Edward George ALLEN on December 24, 1920, in Toronto, and came from a family of musicians. His father, Bill ALLEN, played the trombone and was in a military band in France during the First World War. When Eddie was 10, his father asked him what instrument he wanted to play. The boy thought about it for a while and made up his mind after seeing a huge piano accordion in a music-store window.
"It was bigger than I was," Mr. ALLEN remembered, "but dad bought it anyway."
In a couple of years, he was entertaining at small events with his accordion, making $5 or $10 a week. Better than a paper route. He also won some local singing contests. When he was 17, he started singing and playing three nights a week on a radio program called The Serenader. Bert PEARL heard it and called him in.
"I auditioned him with Bert PEARL, and we liked him right away," Mr. FARNON says from his home on Guernsey in the Channel Islands. "He looked about 12 years old and could barely see over the top of his accordion. He was terribly shy, no self-confidence like the rest of us. He was very popular with the ladies, a very good-looking little chap."
What impressed most was his voice. "There really wasn't a singer in the Happy Gang until he came along. I really liked his voice."
Mr. FARNON remembers an incident from a Happy Gang rehearsal. "Eddie was about to sing a song called, I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen, and I came up behind him and said, 'If you bring the gasoline.' He laughed so much he couldn't sing it when we went on the air."
The Happy Gang was old Canada, when the country was more rural and white skinned. It is impossible to imagine the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation mounting something so corny and wholesome. How corny was it? The host, Mr. PEARL, was known as "that slap-happy chappy, the Happy Gang's own pappy."
He also knew that sentiment sold. Mr. ALLEN would sing The Lord's Prayer on the program, two or three times a year, such as Good Friday, and during the war he sang it as an inspiration for mothers and their boys overseas.
By that time, the show's "appeal was enormous," wrote Ross MacLEAN, the late Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer and media critic who began listening as a child. "During the war years... its influence on the nation was profound. Its almost daily performance of There'll Always Be An England helped maintain home-front resolve and stirred at least this school kid into a frenzy of tinfoil collection, war certificate sales and the knitting of various items for the navy."
Among the cast, Mr. ALLEN was the kid. He was slight, about 5-foot-6, and looked as though he were too young to shave. A newspaper reported that while he was on his honeymoon in 1942, a hotel clerk in Hamilton didn't believe he was old enough to be married and refused to rent him a room. Even some of his fans were quoted by writer Trent FRAYNE as saying, "Oh my goodness, don't tell me that little boy's married."
On air, he always sang old-fashioned ballads. "Every mother would love the stuff he sang," said Lyman POTTS, a retired broadcaster who crossed paths with some of the gang. He recalled that one of the songs Mr. ALLEN performed on a Happy Gang recording was I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch. It was popular on the program, maybe because it was the perfect example of the Happy Gang's sort of cornball humour.
Another example is the line Mr. ALLEN used almost every day in the early years of the program. Mr. PEARL had told him not to let fame go to his head -- "Don't ever get the idea that you're too big to say hello to your mother." So, for his first six years, Mr. ALLEN's opening words were "Hello mom."
During the war, they dropped the shtick for fear of hurting the feelings of mothers with sons in uniform. It sparked a letter-writing campaign. "Don't let Eddie stop saying 'Hello mom,' " Liberty Magazine reported in May, 1945. "He reminds me of my own boy overseas. I wonder if he could think of all of us mothers when he says hello."
Over the years, the show appeared 195 times, always live (tape had yet to come into use when it began), in the course of an annual 39-week season, most of the time with the same cast. Its time slot was moved when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation began running a 1 p.m. newscast, but the shift to 1: 15 EST didn't hurt the ratings. At first, it was produced in a studio on Davenport Road in Toronto and later in front of an audience of 700 to 800 on McGill Street near College and Yonge.
The program's mainstay was not talk or jokes but music, and the signature double knock on the door was an old-fashioned radio sound effect provided by Blain MATHE, who would move up to the mike and rap twice on the back of his violin.
Working together so closely did create some personality conflicts. There were practical jokes, usually aimed at the most uptight cast member: Mr. PEARL, a control freak who loved to plan the program in detail and had his own small office at the McGill Street studio.
One day, Mr. ALLEN and the other Happy Gang members set all the clocks forward by a few minutes. "We're late," they announced to Mr. PEARL, who raced into studio. After the opening, a couple of performers started to whine: "I don't want to do this."
Thinking they were actually on air, Mr. PEARL was shocked -- and didn't feel much better when he learned it was all a joke. It might have been one of the reasons he suffered a nervous breakdown (called "nervous exhaustion" for public consumption) and left the show in 1950 after 18 years and moved to the United States.
Eddie ALLEN took his place as emcee, but the incident rated an article in Maclean's by June CALLWOOD, the country's top magazine writer at the time, entitled: The Not So Happy Gang.
By then Mr. FARNON was long gone. During the war, he had joined the Canadian Army Show's band, and later led the Canadian band with the Allied Expeditionary Force, just as Glen MILLER led its U.S. ensemble. After the war he became a top arranger, working on Frank Sinatra albums and scores for such movies as Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck.
Sinatra, however, was a little too flash for Eddie ALLEN, who preferred Bing Crosby. He was a sharp dresser, but his style was understated, almost always a conservative suit and muted shirt in a business where the shirt easily could have been orange.
His love of clothes gave him something to do when he left show business. Eddie ALLEN owned a men's clothing store in the west end of Toronto after he left the program. He later retired and moved to London, Ontario

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-10 published
Mary Boyle HUDSON
By Mary Jean McFALL Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - Page A24
Wife, mother, grandmother, community leader, cattlewoman, Scotch aficionado. Born January 10, 1931, in Hamilton, Ontario; died June 29 in Lyn, Ontario, of pancreatic cancer, aged 72.
For all that Mary HUDSON cultivated her Scottish roots and was a keen royalist, she loved her country well. Never one for southern beach holidays, she preferred a visit to the polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba
Mary's father, Edward MORWICK, was a Westinghouse engineer in Hamilton, Ontario; her mother, Anne HAMILTON, was a Scottish émigrée. The family brought mementoes from Scotland -- a tartan rug, a travelling trunk -- which had been handed down over the generations; Mary considered herself not the owner but the custodian of these pieces, which she has since entrusted to her children.
After Hamilton's Westdale Collegiate, Mary studied home economics at Macdonald Institute at the University of Guelph. In 1956, responding to a Globe and Mail ad for a high school home economics teacher in Brockville, Ontario, Mary set off in her Nash Metropolitan hardtop. Joe HUDSON, a local farmer and eligible bachelor took note; his nieces always said Mary seemed like a movie star. The city girl married the country boy in 1958, and traded her hardtop for a station wagon. Then she and Joe began a life that would allow Mary to make her home in the tiny village of Lyn, and to see her country and the world.
Mary and Joe raised five children, with the best fundamentals she could offer: She taught them to remember where they came from and she encouraged them to be citizens of the world. She helped found and maintain a local library; established a swimming program; and worked with her United Church, the Fulford Home for Women and the Brockville Hospital, where she not only sat on the board of governors, she also took the wagon around to bring chocolate bars and newspapers to patients.
Mary's passions included a penchant for early morning royal weddings on the television. A founding member of the Brockville An Quaiche society, a club that appreciates the merits of good single malt scotch, she had a taste for a "wee dram."
Together, Mary and Joe built Joe's business, Burnbrae Farms, into a dynamic agricultural enterprise. In 1978, her Christmas gift from Joe started her on her herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle. In 1995, several of her cows won championship ribbons at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.
Mary was a mother to many; privately, she lived a public life. Her door was open without the need to knock. Known as the best cook on the Lyn Road, she made jams in a copper kettle brought from Scotland. I remember Mom supervising church turkey dinners, using a three-foot masher to deal with all the potatoes.
She also produced baby quilts; the last was for Evelyn Mary Morwick ROGAN, her granddaughter who was born 16 days after Mom died.
The crowd at her funeral was so large that we had to enlist the Ontario Provincial Police to handle the traffic. After the service, we walked from the church to the cemetery, with Mary's Clydesdale horses leading the way. When Rob MILLER, the self-declared piper for the clan, reached the top of the hill by the cemetery, he stopped for a moment to talk with the Ontario Provincial Police officer, and they looked down at the hundreds of people walking in the procession. "With all this activity you'd think the Queen had died," said the officer. Rob responded, "She has."
Mary is survived by her husband, Joe, her sister, Helen MORWICK, her children, Helen Anne, Mary Jean, Ted, Susan and Margaret, their spouses, and nine grandchildren. She loved them all.
Mary Jean is Mary HUDSON's daughter.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-09-24 published
McDONALD, Gordon Alexander (a Founder and President of Guelph Twines)
Died of cancer at the Freeport Health Centre, Kitchener, on Monday, September 22, 2003. Gordon Alexander McDONALD, aged 70 years, was the beloved husband of Marilyn (née PICKERING) McDONALD of Guelph. He was the loving father of Lori and her husband David THOMAS of Calgary, Alberta, Mark McDONALD and his wife Susan WAHLROTH, and Paul McDONALD, all of Guelph. Gordon was the proud grandfather of Robyn, Brynlee, Duncan, Chelsea, and Jack. He was the dear brother of Pat MILLER, Bruce McDONALD, and Judy JACKETT.
Private cremation has taken place. The family will receive Friends at Gilbert MacIntyre and son Funeral Home and Chapel, 252 Dublin St. N., Guelph, on Friday, October 3, 2003 from 7-9 p.m. A Memorial Service will take place in the chapel on Saturday, October 4, 2003 at 11 a.m. As expressions of sympathy, donations to a charity of one's choice would be appreciated by the family (cards available at the funeral home (519-822-4731) or email info@gilbertmacintyreandson.com

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-10-24 published
Composer, jazz musician worked with Ellington
By Mark MILLER, Friday, October 24, 2003 - Page R11
Toronto -- Ron COLLIER, a well-respected composer and teacher in the Canadian jazz community, died in Toronto on Wednesday of cancer. He was 73.
Mr. COLLIER, who was born in Coleman, Alberta., played trombone during his teens with the Kitsilano Boys Band in Vancouver then moved in 1950 to Toronto.
While working in local dance bands and studio orchestras there, he was involved with Gordon DELAMONT, Norman SYMONDS, Fred STONE and others in the late 1950s as a performer and composer in "third-stream" jazz, an idiom that framed jazz improvisation in such classical forms as fugue, sonata and concerto.
Mr. COLLIER turned exclusively to composition in 1967, the year that he led a studio orchestra for the LP Duke Ellington North of the Border with the noted American pianist as guest soloist. Mr. COLLIER subsequently collaborated personally with Ellington on a ballet, The River, in 1970, and a symphonic work, Celebration, in 1972, although his contributions went largely unacknowledged. He also wrote for ballet, radio, television and film and completed arrangements for recordings by Moe Koffman and the Boss Brass his last major work was a big-band setting of Oscar Peterson's Canadiana Suit/, premiered in 1997.
Mr. COLLIER, a warm, direct man, taught for many years in Toronto at Humber College, where his influence was felt by at least two generations of musicians now active on the Canadian jazz scene.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-11-15 published
MILLER, Marjorie▲ Florence (née SMYTH)
of Oakville, Ontario. Died peacefully on Thursday, November 13, 2003, in her 78th year, after a brief illness at Oakville Trafalger Memorial Hospital, surrounded by her family. Predeceased by her husband Tom of 53 years. Survived and never to be forgotten by their daughter Jane STONEMAN, son-in-law Rick, grandchildren Pete and Katie and sister Vera SHAW of Surrey, British Columbia. All those who knew and loved her will miss Marge's Friendship, bright smile and ready laugh. After Tom's death and the loss of sight in her remaining eye, some of that spark was diminished. She soldiered on with the help and support of her many steadfast Friends whose companionship she cherished. In the end her prayers were answered: her darkness was transformed into light, as she was able to see and be with Tom once more. Many thanks to the staff on 4E at Oakville Trafalger Memorial Hospital whose remarkable and uncommon compassion and care made her journey easier. As well to Dr. Frank ROUSE, a dear friend and physician of 42 years, who was there for her until the end. A celebration of her life will be arranged for a later date at Hearthstone By The Lake, Burlington, Ontario. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Salvation Army or the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-03 published
Stanley Charles WIGGINS
By L. Bruce CRONK, Wednesday, December 3, 2003 - Page A26
Family man, band leader, insurer, civic supporter, athlete. Born August 9, 1925, in Belleville, Ontario Died August 3, in Kingston, Ontario, of cardiac arrest, aged 77.
Stanley WIGGINS was born in Belleville on the Bay of Quinte in southern Ontario and lived here all his life -- to the immeasurable benefit of the Quinte community. His mother, Beulah, was of United Empire Loyalist background. His father Fred's family was from County Tyrone, Ireland. Stan loved his parents, and cared for his mother to the end of her 93 years.
At age 12, Stan was introduced to the trumpet by bandmaster Jack GREEN of the Salvation Army Citadel Band, a remarkable teacher who initiated many young people into brass music. Three years later, at 15, Stan joined the Commodores Orchestra, famed in Eastern Ontario for its mellow "Big Band" style. He played with them for 60 years. I recall the dancing slowing almost to a halt when Stan's silver-toned trumpet would soar into one of the well-known solos of Bunny Berigan or Harry James, followed by loud applause.
After high school, Stan entered medicine at Queen's University, until illness forced him to abandon the dream of becoming a doctor. He studied at the Ontario Business College and then joined the London Life Insurance Company, first as an underwriter, then manager. In 1948 he married Margaret MILLER, a girl from his own Belleville Collegiate Institute. They and their children, Joanne, Jim and Carol, formed a close-knit family, camping, cottaging and skiing together.
Stan was always physically active: a skier, sailor, camper, golfer and avid swimmer. After he developed cardiac problems, I used to see him at the Harbour Club in the early morning, swimming laps. I still look -- but he's no longer there.
Stan had the capacity to listen with complete interest whenever anyone addressed him. He was, indeed, "Mr. Belleville." His community-caring spirit was manifested in his service on the board of education and of the Children's Aid Society, his presidency of the Belleville Club and the Sales Ad Association.
Stan also gave his musical talents to the Concert Brass and 8 Wing Concert Band, and his own group, the River City Jazz Band. His daughter told me that as a young man he'd stayed with a relative in New Jersey, commuting to New York for special trumpet lessons, and had been offered jobs with several popular bands -- but decided that the constant on-the-road life of a jazz musician was not for him. He was more interested in family life, work, and civic activities. In 1997, Stan received the Quinte Arts Council Recognition Award "in recognition of outstanding contribution to the arts in Quinte."
On Saturday, August 2, he led the Commodores for three hours at the Wellington Waterfront Festival. A close friend and fellow member of the Commodores, trumpeter Bruce PARSONS, later said: "Stan was bound and determined to play that horn up to the day he died, and by God, he did."
On Sunday morning, he and Margaret received Holy Communion, and then, in the afternoon, went with Friends on a Thousand Islands cruise followed by a massed bands tattoo at Fort Henry in Kingston. While the bands played Stan's own arrangement of the New Maple Leaf Forever, a vicious electrical storm broke. Stan hurried off to the bus to get umbrellas for the ladies. Then he collapsed.
At Stan's packed funeral service, Reverend Peter JOYCE gave thanks for Stan's life, and then quoted the song The Commodores always play at the evening's close -- "We'll meet again, /Don't know where, /Don't know when, /But I know we'll meet again/Some sunny day." Amen to that.
L. Bruce CRONK has been a friend of Stan's since their boyhood.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-04 published
A painter of real people
Toronto artist sought to get beneath a subject's veneer to achieve a 'luminous presence'
By Allison LAWLOR, Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, December 4, 2003 - Page R11
'She'll paint you the way she wants," David MIRVISH, patron and art collector, once said of the Canadian portrait painter Lynn DONOGHUE.
"She's sensitive to mood," Mr. MIRVISH, who sat for Ms. DONOGHUE on several occasions, told The Financial Post Magazine in 1984. "She may catch you at a different angle, and not every subject feels that's the way they want to be seen. The important thing is whether it's a successful picture or not. You shouldn't expect to like a portrait."
But what you could expect if you were having your portrait painted by Ms. DONOGHUE is that you would at the very least enjoy the process. Sitting for the Toronto-based painter was like having tea with a lively, old friend.
"You were always chatting about this and that with Lynn," said Father Daniel DONOVAN, an art collector and professor of theology at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto, who also sat for Ms. DONOGHUE. " She was always vibrant and alive."
Always seeking to get beyond a person's veneer, Ms. DONOGHUE enjoyed the process of trying to draw out her subjects. "She wanted people to [be] open and communicate with her," Father DONOVAN said.
Mr. DONOGHUE, considered one of the pre-eminent portrait painters in Canada, died last month in Toronto. She was 50.
"She made a huge impact [in the Canadian art world] and did so at a very young age," said Christian Cardell CORBET, founder of the Canadian Portrait Academy.
"She was at a stage... where she was just about to take off," Mr. CORBET said. "What she could have contributed was just cut short."
Ms. DONOGHUE started showing her work in 1973. Her early work caused a stir when some galleries refused to show her giant portraits of naked males. Since then she has had countless group shows and solo exhibitions. Her work can be found in the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Legislature, the National Museum of Botswana, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and several other private and public collections.
Ms. DONOGHUE, who was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1991, did both commissioned and non-commissioned portraits. One of her notable commissions was of John STOKES, the former speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Last year, Ms. DONOGHUE completed a portrait of Margaret ATWOOD that came was at once celebrated. After approaching the Canadian literary icon to paint her portrait, Ms. DONOGHUE set about to capture Ms. ATWOOD using bright oil colours. In the portrait, Ms. ATWOOD, sits with her legs crossed and looks out at the viewer wearing a vibrant, green shirt.
"She was not afraid of colour," Mr. CORBET said. "She would take it [paint] right from the tube."
Three years ago, Terrence HEATH, the former director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, wrote in BorderCrossings following an exhibition of Ms. DONOGHUE's work at a Toronto gallery: "Each painting... is a statement in colour. The figures are set in colour fields that tell you as much about the figure as the likeness and body position do. Most remarkable about these paintings is their sheer luminous presence."
"She created honest portraits" and "didn't follow much of a systematic approach to portraiture," Mr. CORBET said. "She allowed her spontaneity and intuition to come through."
Ms. DONOGHUE once said that her historic mentors, such as Frans Hals, conveyed in their portraits the feeling of people who are very alive. "Why do people know, when they look at a painting of mine, that it is a real person?" she told The Financial Post Magazine in 1984. It was one of her perpetual queries into the nature of portrait painting.
Lynn DONOGHUE was born on April 20, 1953, in the small community of Red Lake in northern Ontario, more than 500 kilometres from Thunder Bay. Her father Graham DONOGHUE was a mining engineer who moved his family about, including a spell in Newfoundland. Ms. DONOGHUE finished high school at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ontario She graduated in 1972 with a special art diploma.
Having lived in England and New York as an artist, Toronto was home to Ms. DONOGHUE. She lived with her 14-year-old son Luca in a loft in a converted industrial building in the city's west end. Her loft doubled as her studio. In the cluttered space, some of her paintings hung on the walls and canvases were stacked next to the essentials required for daily living. Living off the sale of her paintings, Ms. DONOGHUE financially scrapped by month to month, her Friends said.
Described as vivacious and gregarious, she was "the life of the party." An active member of the arts community, she could regularly be seen at gallery openings and art shows around Toronto. Outside the art world, she was an active community member. Most recently she helped to organize events for Toronto's new mayor David MILLER during the municipal election. She also attended the Anglican Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where a painting she had done of her son's baptism hung on the wall.
An exhibit of Ms. DONOGHUE's most recent major work is scheduled to open at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, in March. Called the The Last Supper, the large group piece, which Ms. DONOGHUE started in 2001, consists of 13 portraits encircling a central table piece, which is itself a triptych. The installation requires a total wall space of about 5 metres by 10 metres (16 feet by 34 feet).
Father DONOVAN well remembers how he first learned of the project. One day, he received a call from Ms. DONOGHUE asking if he would have lunch with her. She had an idea she wanted to talk to him about. The idea turned out to be the The Last Supper and Ms. DONOGHUE said she needed his help. After their lunch, she invited Father DONOVAN, along with several others, to dinner. While they were eating and drinking, she photographed them, capturing their mannerisms and expressions. From the photographs, she made a series of sketches which she then used to develop the large group piece.
"She loved what she was doing," Mr. CORBET said. "There was this inner drive that said 'go on.' "
Ms. DONOGHUE, an insulin-dependent diabetic, died on November 22 in a Toronto hospital, after suffering from an insulin reaction that led to a coma.
She leaves her parents Marjorie and Graham DONOGHUE, her son Luca LANGIANO and his father, Domenico LANGIANO and sister Barbara VAVALIDIS.

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MILLER o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-29 published
McMEHEN, Ruth Victoria (MILLER)
In Ottawa, Sunday, December 28, 2003. Ruth Victoria MILLER, born December 4, 1916. Widow of James McMEHEN. Beloved mother of Carol SCOTT- MILLER of Vancouver, Jo RODRIGUEZ (Gonzalo) of Santo Domingo, Gordon (Moira) of Toronto and Kathy NEMES (Laszlo) of Auburn, California. Adored by her 9 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Devoted aunt to many nieces and nephews. She will be remembered for her incorrigible sense of humour, her kindness and affection, and her singular love for her family. She died as she lived, bravely and unselfishly. Friends may assemble Tuesday at Annunciation of our Lord Church, 2414 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa for Mass of Christian Funeral at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Elizabeth Bruyere Palliative Care Unit appreciated.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.
- Robert Frost
Kelly Funeral Homes (613) 235-6712

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