51 Facts About Rita MacNeil

Rita MacNeil was a Canadian singer from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island.

Rita MacNeil's 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 and adult contemporary charts throughout her career.

Rita MacNeil was the only female singer ever to have three separate albums chart in the same year in Australia.

Rita MacNeil was the fifth of eight siblings; she had three brothers and four sisters.

Rita MacNeil's father owned a local store and was a carpenter, and her mother worked in the family store.

Rita MacNeil called it a point in her life that profoundly affected her because it was a traumatic passage out of innocence.

Rita MacNeil's father worked as a carpenter, her mother worked at Eaton's, and her sister Mary worked at a local grocery store.

Rita MacNeil had just finished Grade 11 when she took a summer job in Toronto, along with her friend Carolyn Tobin, working for CNR.

Rita MacNeil had met a man she described as Sicilian, with jet black hair, brown eyes and very white teeth.

Rita MacNeil began dating this man although he had told her his parents wanted him to marry a Sicilian woman.

Rita MacNeil became pregnant in 1965; frightened and unsure of the future, she returned to her parents, who cared for and supported her.

Rita MacNeil started struggling with her weight, which fluctuated from 119 to 183 pounds.

That summer Rita MacNeil decided to continue working toward her singing goals as she made a life for her daughter.

Langham and Rita MacNeil left Toronto in the summer of 1968, purchasing a 78-acre farm in the village of Dundalk.

Rita MacNeil's second child, Wade, was born there on April 30,1970.

Rita MacNeil longed to return to the city and convinced Langham to sell the farm, and in the fall of 1970 they moved to Etobicoke, just outside the City of Toronto.

Rita MacNeil returned to Cape Breton in spring 1976, became severely depressed, and left again, this time taking her children on her move to Ottawa where, as a single mother, she took jobs cleaning houses and became a welfare recipient.

Rita MacNeil was first introduced to the women's movement in 1971 and it was pivotal to her music career.

In 1975 Rita MacNeil released her first album, Born A Woman, a tribute to those fighting for women's rights across the country.

Rita MacNeil performed for International Women's Day in Sydney, Cape Breton; realizing she could do her music in Cape Breton, she moved back to Nova Scotia.

In 1983 Rita MacNeil released her third album, I'm Not What I Seem.

In 1985 Rita MacNeil was invited to sing at the Canadian Pavilion in Japan, at Expo '85.

Not letting this disappointment get her down, Rita MacNeil was ready to release her fourth album, Flying on Your Own, but record companies were unwilling to pick it up, so she decided to release it under her own record label, Lupin Production.

Rita MacNeil won her first Juno Award in 1987 for Most Promising Female Vocalist.

In 1988 Rita MacNeil received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Brunswick, and released two more albums, Now the Bells Ring and Reason to Believe, which was written for her mother.

Rita MacNeil was given one of the Canadian music industry's highest honours, the Procan award, now known as Socan.

In 1989 Rita MacNeil received another honorary doctorate, from St Mary's University.

Rita MacNeil filmed another television special, Flying on Your Own, for CTV, and released another album, Rita, which she recorded in Vancouver.

In 1990 Rita MacNeil was nominated for three Juno awards: Album of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, and Country Vocalist of the Year; she won Female Vocalist.

Rita MacNeil filmed her first Christmas special for CTV, Now the Bells Ring, and saw her Christmas album, Now the Bells Ring, reach triple-platinum status and Flying on Your Own reach double-platinum status.

In 1991 Rita MacNeil won Female Vocalist of the Year at the Juno Awards, followed by Female Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year, at the East Coast Music Awards.

Rita MacNeil was awarded the Socan Award for Highest Airplay of a Song.

Rita MacNeil set out on a European tour, which included what she considered a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

IN 1993 Rita MacNeil won the East Coast Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year and received honorary doctorates from St Francis Xavier University and Mount St Vincent University.

Rita MacNeil hoped to get stores to carry sizes up to 32 and Penningtons considered sizes up to 26, but the 'Rita Line' garnered no interest.

In later years Rita MacNeil performed summer concert series in the tea room, which included dinner and a show.

Rita MacNeil received another honorary doctorate in 1994 from the University College of Cape Breton.

Rita MacNeil won a Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Variety Program in 1996.

Rita MacNeil was nominated for the same award in 1994, but did not win, and in 1995 was nominated for Best Performance in a Variety Program for her Christmas special, Once Upon a Christmas.

Rita MacNeil wrote a memoir, On a Personal Note with Anne Simpson in 1998 and it was published by Key Porter Books.

Rita MacNeil was interviewed by CTV journalist Sandie Rinaldo in a one-hour documentary based on her autobiography, Rita MacNeil: On a Personal Note.

Rita MacNeil produced a television special one year later in 2004 called Rita MacNeil's Cape Breton, featuring Jimmy Rankin, Ashley MacIsaac, and The Men of the Deeps.

Rita MacNeil was featured in a 2004 episode of Trailer Park Boys, in which she and her band were forced to harvest marijuana at gunpoint.

Rita MacNeil was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia in 2005.

Rita MacNeil was awarded the Dr Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 East Coast Music Awards.

Rita MacNeil's last known stage performance was just over a month before her death, on March 9,2013 during East Coast Music Week.

Rita MacNeil was given 25th Anniversary Award at the 2013 East Coast Music Awards Gala.

Rita MacNeil was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in September 2013.

Rita MacNeil was recognized at the 2014 East Coast Music awards with the Directors Special Achievement Award.

Rita MacNeil died on April 16,2013, from complications of surgery after a recurrent infection.

Early reports from the Globe and Mail that Rita MacNeil contracted an infection while in the hospital were not correct, and the newspaper later printed a correction.