Camilla “Connie” O’Neal passed away on July 24th at the home of her son Grant and his wife Patty O’Neal in Columbia, Missouri. Memorial services will be held at a later date.
Dr. Camilla “Connie” D. O’Neal, professor emeritus of English and Education was born in Rector, Arkansas to Ernest Guill and Ida Mae Vowell Guill on April 9, 1931. Dr. O’Neal was married to Graham Justus O’Neal on July 24, 1948 at the First Methodist Church in New Madrid, Missouri and passed on their 72nd wedding anniversary.
Dr. O’Neal was a graduate of Paragould High School and received the following college degrees Summa Cum Laud: a PHD from the University of Mississippi; a specialist degree in college teaching from Arkansas State University; and a Master’s Degree and Bachelor’s Degree in English and Education from Missouri State University (SMSU). She did post-graduate work in English at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Her honors included induction into Phi Kappa Phi and Kappa Delta Pi and receiving the Missouri Governor’s Teaching Award in 1995 from Gov. Mel Carnahan and the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education, and the MSU-WP Distinguished Faculty Award in 2012.
Dr. O’Neal supported her community as a board member of several organizations, including the West Plains Area Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of the Greater West Plains Area, the West Plains Council on the Arts, the Missouri Association of Teachers of English, the National Association of Teacher of English, the Language Arts Department of Southwest Missouri, and the Community Teachers Association. She was a den mother, a Girl Scout leader, a member of the Missouri Humanities Council, the West Plains Public Library Foundation Board and Chapter CM of P.E.O. which she served as acting president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. She was a dedicated member of the First United Methodist Church where she was a past member of the finance committee, the board of trustees, a youth group leader, church school coordinator, student scholarship and loan fund committee chairman, president of the Methodist Women, and a member of the Elizabeth Group. For her work in the women’s groups she was honored with two lifetime memberships.
Survivors include daughter Kathleen (Toney) Aid, daughter-in-law Kay O’Neal, widow of Scott O’Neal, all of West Plains, and son Grant (Patty) O’Neal of Columbia, MO. Grandchildren: Hilary (Mason) Aid, and Rachel (Daniel) Beaman, Columbia, MO, Graham Aid, Stockholm, Sweden, Leslie O’Neal, Kansas City, MO. and three great-grandchildren, Columbia, MO.
She was preceded in death by her husband Graham, son Scott O’Neal, her parents, two brothers Dwight Guill and Lavaughan Guill, one sister, Bonda Stevenson.
Contributions may be made to the Graham and Connie O’Neal Scholarship Fund of Missouri State University, West Plains or the West Plains Public Library Foundation.
