After a terrible night of drinking and fighting, MacNeil's older brother Malcolm 'Malkie', arrived in Toronto, and with the help of her sister Mary, convinced their parents it was time to move back to Cape Breton, and they did.īy the summer of 1960, MacNeil was itching to get away to the city to start making a name for herself. Her mother's desire to move back to Cape Breton, only sparked the abuse to become worse among her parents. MacNeil's father took work as a carpenter, her mother took a job at Eaton's, while her sister Mary took work at a local grocery store.Alcoholism was a large part in her parents life, and only became worse in Toronto. In the mid-1950s, MacNeil's parents sold their local store and began a big move that would take them to Sydney before going on to live in Toronto. She called it was a point in her life that profoundly affected her, because it was a traumatic passage out of innocence. MacNeil noted that the sexual abuse eventually ended, unsure whether it was because someone had found out what was going on, or because her family moved away from Big Pond. She recalled years of sexual abuse, and in her book noted that he did everything to her without actually raping her. For many years she kept this dark secret to herself, only revealing it for the first time in her autobiography. MacNeil's father owned a local store and was a carpenter, and her mother could often be found working in the family store.Īs a young girl, MacNeil was molested by her great uncle who lived down the road from the family home. She was born with a facial disfigurement from a Cleft lip and palate Born into a large family, MacNeil was the fifth born child out of a total of eight children, three brothers and four sister. MacNeil was born in Big Pond to parents Neil J. Throughout her career MacNeil would receive five Honorary degrees, release 24 albums, win three Juno Awards, four CCMA awards, eleven ECMA awards, become inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and named to the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada. She was also the only female singer ever to have three separate albums chart in the same year in Australia. In 1990, she was the bestselling country artist in Canada, outselling even Garth Brooks and Clint Black. In the United Kingdom, MacNeil's song "Working Man" was a No. Her biggest hit, "Flying On Your Own", was a crossover Top 40 hit in 1987 and was covered by Anne Murray the following year, although she had hits on the country charts throughout her career. Rita MacNeil, CM, ONS (April 16, 2013) was a Canadian country and folk singer from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island.
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