Obituary of Cecelia Mae Bernice McQuinn

Cecelia Mae Bernice (Polly) McQuinn, wife of Harold McQuinn, died quietly in her sleep on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at the Saint John Regional Hospital, after surviving since 1990 with throat cancer, treated but never cured by Royal V. G. Halifax, N. S. and Regional Hospital, Saint John, N. B. Besides her husband, Harold of 61 years she is survived by four sons: Patrick of Rothesay, Kevin (Ruth) of Ottawa, Ralph, Brendon both of Toronto; two daughters: Maureen McQuinn of Saint John, Maria MacPhee of Quispamsis; three grandchildren: Alex, Nicholas and Michael; one great-grandchild, Liam, nieces and nephews. Besides her parents she was predeceased by one brother, Vincent Stack and one sister, Dorothy Braid. Bernice was the second daughter of George and Alice (Melanson) Stack, and lived her first 30 years at 296 Germain Street, Saint John’s South End, Lower Cove, Reid’s Point, in the same house her father had been born in on the eve of the Great Saint John Fire. Bernice spent Second World War years 1940-1945 as Secretary in the Old Customs House on Prince William Street after graduating from St. Vincent’s Girls’ School and a Commercial Class for Stenos at Saint John Vocational School, Douglas Avenue, next to the building in which she later worked as Secretary to the RCMP 1969-1972. Upon resigning from a Custom House position, Bernice became Private Secretary to the President of Aluminum Co. of Canada in Arvida, Quebec. She returned to Saint John to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs, met Harold Otty McQuinn and wed him on August 1, 1949. They lived for five years in their summer camp home in Quispamsis and then built a new home in Rothesay in 1958. Harold and Bernice had six children: Patrick, Kevin, Maureen, George, Maria and Ralph. Bernice McQuinn was a well-known hostess to old and young alike at lawn parties and dinners. She was a legal secretary for Saint John’s best known law firm, Porter & Ritchie, Dan Riley, Gerald Teed, Ben Guss and Norwood Carter, and would incorporate firms for all the Irving fleet ships in the fifties. She wrote all her life; learned to read at age three and yearned to write professionally…so she became a reporter and staff writer on the Saint John City newspapers: The Evening-Times Globe and The Telegraph Journal. She was a founding member of UNB Writers, won four short story awards and hosted Group Writers. Bernice was a member of the Saint John Theatre Guild under Mrs. Mary Longley in 1940. As a volunteer worker, Bernice supervised ten years of the programs in Spring Bayside School directing musical students. Her nearly 100 years of poetry, letters, stories, and diaries can be found in the Archives of the University of New Brunswick Library in Fredericton. Resting at Brenan’s Funeral Home, 111 Paradise Row, Saint John, NB(634-7424) with visiting on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 from 2-4 and 7-9 pm. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 12:05 pm. Interment will take place in Hampton Rural Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Romero House.