Fellow mourners comforted Win Manning at her husband Rod Manning’s funeral at St Patrick s Catholic Church, Mackay, on Tuesday December 8. Picture: Zizi Averill
Rod Manning Former Daily Mercury editor Rod Manning never left home without a notepad and a pen in his breast pocket. During his 17 years in the role, and many years as a reporter before that, he thought of journalism as a noble pursuit of truth and justice. He was a news man, his son John Manning told the people who had gathered to bid the late journalist, historian, mentor, friend, husband, father and brother farewell on December 8.
The late John Joseph McNeill OAM was an old-fashioned romantic, dedicated grandfather and a champion of the Habana community. He passed away on November 14, aged 74, from jaundice and gall stones which had developed in his kidney and liver. His surviving wife Joyce McNeill said she met the Mackay local during his three-year posting to England in 1971 after he had served in the Vietnam War. He was an instructor with RAEME (Royal Corps of Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers), Mrs McNeill said. I worked as a customs officer at an airport and I did some spare work for a friend of mine who had a pub.