In the fall of 2010 when we were on tour in Eastern Canada and the United States, we stopped at Rita's Tea House in Big Pond, N.S., for afternoon tea. Rita was driving home from town getting groceries and saw the West World bus parked out front and turned around and came back to the tea house. She was most gracious and sat and signed autographs and had her picture taken with anyone who wanted one.
Rita MacNeil, born May 28, 1944, died April 16 from post-surgical complications. She was 68 years old. Her tea house has become one of Cape Breton Island's most popular tourist attractions.
She was a Canadian country and folk singer from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island. 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.
In the United Kingdom, MacNeil's song, Working Man, was a number 11 hit in 1990. In 1990, she was the bestselling country artist in Canada, outselling even Garth Brooks and Clint Black. She was also the only female singer ever to have three separate albums chart in the same year in Australia.
MacNeil first performed on stage in 1971, and recorded her first album, Born a Woman, in 1975. She performed at folk festivals throughout the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in her major label debut and pop breakthrough in 1987. MacNeil hosted a CBC Television variety show, Rita and Friends, from 1994 to 1997. The show won a Gemini Award in 1996.
She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1992 and was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia in 2005. She was featured in a season four episode of Trailer Park Boys, wherein she and her band are forced to harvest marijuana at gunpoint.
MacNeil wrote her memoirs, On A Personal Note, with Anne Simpson in 1998, which was published by Key Porter Books. Flying On Her Own, a play based on MacNeil's life and featuring many of her songs, premiered at Live Bait Theatre in Sackville, N.B. in 2000. Written by Canadian playwright Charlie Rhindress, it was subsequently produced by Neptune Theatre in Halifax, N.S. in 2002 and published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2008.
