2008.01.26: January 26, 2008: Headlines: COS - St. Lucia: Obituaries: Atlanta Journal Constitution: Obituary for St. Lucia RPCV Winnie Daniell
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2008.01.26: January 26, 2008: Headlines: COS - St. Lucia: Obituaries: Atlanta Journal Constitution: Obituary for St. Lucia RPCV Winnie Daniell
Obituary for St. Lucia RPCV Winnie Daniell
Winnie Daniell didn't tell a soul when she decided to join the Peace Corps at the age of 63. "No one in the family knew she was thinking of doing it," said her daughter Diane DeBarry of Braselton "She just called us one day, and we had a family meeting, and she said, 'This is what I'm going to do.' " But the more they pondered it, the more her friends and family grasped the rightness of the move. It meant Mrs. Daniell would abandon the comforts of Atlanta in 1985 for a rougher life in St. Lucia. For two years, the retired librarian slept under mosquito netting and devoted herself to rescuing the local library's deteriorating collection of books. "When I heard she'd joined the Peace Corps, I thought, 'Well, that's typical Winnie,' " said her friend Barry Lastinger of Atlanta. "When she retired, I didn't know what she was going to do, but I knew she wasn't one to just sit around."
Obituary for St. Lucia RPCV Winnie Daniell
Winnie Daniell, 85, Peace Corps volunteer
By HOLLY CRENSHAW
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/20/08
Fiercely independent to her core, Winnie Daniell didn't tell a soul when she decided to join the Peace Corps at the age of 63.
"No one in the family knew she was thinking of doing it," said her daughter Diane DeBarry of Braselton
"She just called us one day, and we had a family meeting, and she said, 'This is what I'm going to do.' "
But the more they pondered it, the more her friends and family grasped the rightness of the move. It meant Mrs. Daniell would abandon the comforts of Atlanta in 1985 for a rougher life in St. Lucia. For two years, the retired librarian slept under mosquito netting and devoted herself to rescuing the local library's deteriorating collection of books.
"When I heard she'd joined the Peace Corps, I thought, 'Well, that's typical Winnie,' " said her friend Barry Lastinger of Atlanta. "When she retired, I didn't know what she was going to do, but I knew she wasn't one to just sit around."
The memorial service for Winifred Griffith Daniell is 2 p.m. Sunday at Central Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Daniell, 85, of Atlanta, died of lymphoma Jan. 10 at Peachtree Christian Hospice. The body was donated to Emory University School of Medicine.
Mrs. Daniell earned her master's degree from Emory University in 1969 and retired as a media specialist from the city of Atlanta school system in 1983.
The time she spent in the Peace Corps late in life dovetailed neatly with her early years. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to missionary parents and grew up with little, her daughter said. After her divorce, she raised her children alone.
"I think she'd been hungry as a kid and had struggled, and that's why she was so compassionate when it came to people who didn't have very much," her daughter said. "She couldn't stand for anyone to be homeless or hungry."
She won a volunteer award from Habitat for Humanity for the time she put in at its Memorial Drive office. And at Central Presbyterian Church, she served food to homeless people every Christmas morning.
An early champion of women's rights and environmental concerns, Mrs. Daniell was known for embracing these causes years before others did, Mr. Lastinger said.
In her church newsletter column, she encouraged people to recycle their water, reuse their plastic bags and live a simple life that would benefit others.
"We actually used to kid her about it," he said. "But now, of course, we realize she was on the forefront of all that long before the rest of the world caught on."
Mrs. Daniell led a socially rich life in Atlanta. She sang with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, threw lots of parties and went hiking and foraging for wild plants with friends.
While she was away in the Peace Corps, she read books to children in St. Lucia and was deeply committed to her work there. Still, she battled loneliness and missed the freedoms of home.
"You couldn't go out after dark," she said in a 1989 Atlanta Constitution article. "It's not the safest place to walk out on a lonely stretch of road."
Her daughter said, "As the years go on, I'm more and more impressed by my mother.
"What she did took a lot of courage," DeBarry said. "But I think she cared so much about other people that she tried to not let her own fears interfere with helping others."
Survivors include another daughter, Jennifer A. Daniell of Atlanta; a son, Richard A. Daniell of Atlanta; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
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Headlines: January, 2008; Peace Corps Saint Lucia; Directory of St. Lucia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for St. Lucia RPCVs; Obituaries
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