DOREEN WALSH NOSEWORTHY, TALENT GALORE!

In my humble, and perhaps not quite unbiased, opinion all former St Patrick's pupils are amazing people, each with an interesting life story to tell. In regard to St Patrick's, Doreen Walsh Noseworthy wears two hats - one of pupil and one of teacher! As such, she has been a presence in the lives of many of us.  I thought it would be interesting  to track her down for a chat.

"You were born in St John’s, Doreen.  When? Or is that too personal?  July 2, 1946.  

The eldest of six children, you were followed by four sisters and a brother.  If they don’t mind you letting the cat out of the bag, would you like to put them in order of age for us please?    Zita, John, Marian, Brenda and Mary Elizabeth.

You and your sisters all attended St Patrick’s Convent Schools. Would I be correct in assuming that John was a Holy Cross Boy? You would indeed! A Crusader true!

DOREEN WALSH, THE GRADE 6 PUPIL, IS IN THE VERY CENTRE OF THE FRONT ROW

I remember your grandmother Walsh when she lived next to the shop kept by Miss Hayes.  That shop was a haven for the girls and boys of St Patrick’s and Holy Cross.  Miss Hayes had the patience of Job.  Your Mom took over the shop after Miss Hayes and her warm personality ensured that it continued to be a place of welcome and friendship (and delicious Bulls Eyes!).  How long was ‘Walsh’s Store’ a fixture of West End life?  10 years

Of course I knew your parents, Betty and Leo, well.  Were they both St John’s people?  Yes, they were both townies. Mom grew up on Flower Hill and Dad on Angel Place. Mom went to school at St. Patrick’s (as did her mother) and Dad was a Holy Cross boy.

You attended St Patrick’s from September 1950 to June 1960 then it was off to Holy Heart of Mary Regional High School.  Later you returned to St Patrick’s as a teacher.  What year was that and was it your first teaching position? My first teaching job was at St. Patrick’s Convent School,   September 1964. The first two years, I taught grade four and for the next 13 years, I taught grade five. In 1979, with a very heavy heart, I resigned my position due to health issues with our 17 month old son. It really was a difficult decision to make, since I knew that going back would not be an option. Teaching jobs, especially in the city, were at a premium at that time and once the decision was made, there was no turning back. I felt like I was leaving a part of me behind that June when I left and, in fact, I was. St. Patrick’s had been such a huge part of my life for so many years, it was hard to imagine a time when it wouldn’t. I’ll never forget the feeling, in September of that year, when everyone was returning to school except me. How could my “family”, the teachers I worked with all those years, and the students and parents I had come to know and love, move on without me? It was the loneliest, strangest feeling I had ever experienced up to that point in my life. However, life does go on and later that fall I opened a Nursery School in our home in Holyrood, which I operated for five years, working only mornings, from 9:00 – 12:00. When our children were in school full day, I went back teaching, substituting in schools all around Conception Bay Centre, CBS, St. Joseph’s and Mount Carmel for quite a few years and later retired in 2003, from St. Catherine’s Academy, Mount Carmel, with a career in education that spanned 38 years. 

You were at St Patrick’s for a very long time. 15 years.  

DOREEN, THE TEACHER,
WITH HER GRADE 5 CLASS

You come from a very musical family so music has always been a big part of your life.  I actually remember you playing the spoons for us when we were in Miss Murphy’s Kindergarten!  I have many memories of your parents but the most enduring one of your father is a very old one but also a very happy one.  It was when you lived on Warberry St and I believe it was Christmas.  ‘In the Mood’, having been revived by someone, was a huge hit at the time and we girls were jiving up a storm to your father’s amazing rendition of it.  Tell us about your own musical career. I have been blessed with many good fortunes in my life and, aside from my family, singing and playing my guitar is my greatest passion. I had the great fortune of being born into a musical family. My mother’s parents were both musical and my father’s family even more so. My grandfather, John (Jack) Walsh loved to sing, my father, Leo, played guitar and had an amazing voice, and my Uncle Jack (Jackie Walsh or Cowboy Jack, as he was often called), “Newfoundland’s First Celebrated Country Singer” was a Pioneer of Country Music in Newfoundland. Uncle Jack had his own radio show on VONF (later to become VOCM) and was the opening act, playing his guitar and singing with his own band, when the radio station first went on the air. With a background like that, it was hard not to have grown up with such a love of music.

I am told that I could sing as soon as I learned to talk. In fact, my parents were never sure which came first. I used to play my dad’s guitar but he would have to hold it for me since it was much too big for such a little girl. I would play and sing for my parents’ friends when there were parties at our house. I was seven years old when I got my own guitar, a ukulele, from O’Brien’s Music Store. I remember sitting on the swing in our neighbour’s yard, playing my ukulele and singing to my heart’s content, never realizing that the neighbours were watching and listening. I also remember that when I was in grade three, Harry Brown, known fondly as “Uncle Harry” had a kids show on VOCM radio at 5:00 o’clock in the afternoons. My friend, Joan Roy, and I decided that we were going to go down and be on the “Uncle Harry Show” and that’s what we did. She sang “Changing Partners”, a popular song on the radio at the time, and I did a recitation “Twinkle Eye” which we had learned in school. We did that on several occasions and, of course, we loved the attention we got at school the next day. I guess that was the start of my public performance. 

Of course, music was always a big thing in school, at St. Patrick’s. From Kindergarten, my talents were displayed. Miss Murphy, the kindergarten teacher at St. Patrick’s for over forty years, was a friend of the family and had taught my mom’s mother, my mom and was now teaching me. So she knew of my singing and my ability to play the spoons before I even started school. Whenever the Reverend Mother (Mother De Sales) would come visit our classroom, Miss Murphy would have us sing for her, do recitations and little dances she had taught us, and yes, get me to play the spoons while she accompanied me on the organ.

As we got older, there were class choirs, school choirs, church choirs, plays, concerts, Kiwanis Music Festivals and Trinity College Choral Speaking; and there was I, right in the thick of it all. There wasn’t a Requiem Mass at St. Patrick’s Church I didn’t attend, from grade six to grade eight. The Mass was all in Latin then, and so was all the singing. Lots of work went into learning all that. It started in grade four, with little bits at a time so that, when you got to grade six, you were ready to go it on your own.

When I went to Holy Heart I was in the class choir but, because of bussing, I couldn’t join the School Choir. However, I did continue to participate in the Trinity College Choral Speaking program in grade nine.

The year I started teaching, my brother, John, his friend Gerald Collins and my cousin, Jack (Uncle Jack’s son), were talking about forming a band but they didn’t have a singer. They would always practice at our house because John played drums and they were too cumbersome to move from house to house. Whenever I was around during their practices, they would ask me to sing for them. One of the teachers at school, Helena Gough, had a twin sister who was getting married that summer and asked me if we would play for her sister’s wedding. We had never done anything like that before. It was just a bit of fun up to that point. We agreed to do the wedding and there was born “The Montereys” and a second career for me, as lead singer. Our band played all over the Avalon region of the province doing night clubs, private dances, garden parties, weddings, Christmas parties and the like. We were very much in demand and, I recall December 1970 we played every night, except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and played twice on Boxing Day, with a matinee for the Bella Vista staff that afternoon. It was a very hectic month, never to be repeated. Needless to say, the bookings in the Decembers to follow were well checked after that. It was just too difficult, with teaching each day and trying to have a life of my own separate from all that. I stayed with the band until February 14, 1975 when, being 4 months pregnant with our first child, I decided it was time to quit.

DOREEN,  THE "ROCK STAR"

I continued with my playing and singing over the years at local concerts, a little pub work now and then, substitute teaching for music teachers and being involved with musical events in the Conception Bay Centre area. I was “Leader of Song” for 25 years at Holy Cross Church in Holyrood, I am a member of the Cloudberries Community Choir and Holy Cross Church Choir. For the past number of years I find myself filling my summers with music and song at the H.W. Duffet Shriners’ Park in Eastport, NL. We have two nights of music each week and a Gospel Sing every Sunday morning, as well as appearances at the Heritage Theatre in Eastport. Through music and singing, I have made the most rewarding and remarkable friendships and I feel especially blessed because of it. I have always been willing to share my talents because I know that I have been blessed with a gift and gifts are meant to be shared.   

Doreen, you are a lady of many talents. You have surprised me with your very considerable painting ability.  Have you always painted or is it something you took up recently?   I am a fan of your website, ‘Newfoundland Artist Doreen Noseworthy’  (link here).  You have some beautiful work displayed there.  You must get a lot of pleasure from painting but do you paint solely for pleasure or do you also sell your work?   Where can it be purchased? 

Thank you, Beth Anne, for your kind words about my paintings. It is something I took up in retirement. I was never very good at Art per se, but I always said that I would love to be able to paint. My daughter, Nicole, was taking lessons and I was so amazed by what she was doingI have only recently offered some of my prints for sale. I don’t do any advertising, just word of mouth, by family and friends. My daughter set up a Facebook page with some of my work displayed there, as you referenced earlier. I don’t consider myself an “artist” but if people like my work I can’t argue with that.

Do you do specific requests for people or are your paintings all your own thoughts and inspirations? I have done a couple of requests for people but I mainly paint for my own pleasure.

You are married to Gerry Noseworthy.  When and where did you marry? Gerry and I are married almost 44 years now. We were married at St. Patrick’s Church, July 8, 1972. He is my soul mate, my best friend, my confidant, the father of our two children (Nicole and Neal) and we are the proud grandparents of Jaxson Neal Noseworthy who is four years old and lives with his parents, Neal and Melissa, in PEI.

Do you have any other strings to your bow, any more hidden talents that you would care to tell us about? I am very proud of the fact that I have been an advocate for teachers/educators and students all my life. It started with my early involvement as NTA Liaison for St. Patrick’s School when I first started teaching. As time went on, I got involved,  at the Branch level, as part of the Branch Executive. From there I went on to become an elected member of the Provincial Executive of what then became NLTA. Before I retired in June of 2003, I was elected Vice President of Avalon East Division of the Retired Teachers Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (RTANL). I served two years as VP, four years as President, and two years as Past President of the Division. I have also served at the provincial level and am currently Vice President of Provincial Executive of RTANL and will be running for President in October.

In my retirement, I was also asked to serve as a member of the provincial Aging Issues Network established by Government through   the Seniors Resource Centre. The purpose of this was to research and identify the main issues of seniors living in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The research was done and a report submitted over a period of about 4 years. Subsequent to that, Government established a Department of Seniors’ Wellness and Aging.  

I am also currently serving as Secretary of the Coalition of Pensioners, Retirees and Seniors of NL. This group is also advocating on behalf of seniors throughout the province and is made up of 14 other member retiree groups and former union leaders both provincially and federally. We have been working diligently and  meeting with both levels of government to try to improve the quality of life for the seniors, who have built this place we like to call home, through hard work and sacrifice over the past numbers of decades.

As you can imagine, I am and have always been a very busy person but my summers are still my own. That’s when I unwind, take time to smell the roses and do the things I really enjoy for myself.....visiting with family and friends, singing and playing my guitar, walking, painting a bit (on rainy days) or just relaxing with a good book or  movie.

I am so grateful for the many blessings which have been bestowed on me throughout my life.

What else do you get up to in your spare time?  That is, if you have any ‘spare time’!  Spare time? What’s that? One of these days I’ll find the answer to that question. (The answer to this question, however, is included in the previous one, Beth Anne.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me, Beth Anne. It has afforded me the opportunity to do some reflecting and recall some wonderful memories of times past. There are so many St. Patrick’s girls who have achieved such accomplishments in their lives that I feel truly humbled to be asked to do this. I’m only a cog on the wheel of life but every cog has its purpose and makes the wheels turn as they should. So, if I have contributed in any way, I am very pleased about that. I attribute many of my achievements to the wonderful years I spent at St. Patrick’s both as a student and teacher. We learned about responsibility, leadership, commitment, a desire for learning, being the best that we could be, sharing, getting along with and caring about others from our parents and family initially, but these things were so strongly reinforced through the many experiences of school life at St. Patrick’s. There were times, I’m sure, when we all thought things could have been better or that too much was expected of us. I remember those early mornings when we had to be there for Mass before going to school instead of sleeping in a bit longer, or the late evenings walking home in the dark after festival practice or worse still, having to give up a Saturday morning or afternoon for practice or to sing at a funeral Mass. What were they thinking?? Little did we know that, in years to come, we would be so grateful for the lessons that we have carried with us throughout our entire adult lives; the character building, the motivation, the inspiration, the lasting friendships and wonderful memories – things that have made us the people we are today.

DOREEN ENJOYING SOME OF THOSE
"LASTING FRIENDSHIPS"

In concluding, I would be very remiss if I didn’t say a special “thank you” to the Presentation sisters who made it all possible and who instilled such values and standards of right and wrong into each and every one of us. They weren’t all saints, but they did their best to deliver an education and respect for both learning and living that remains with us to this very day. God bless you all!"   

Thank you Doreen.  It has been a real treat talking to you.  I am sure your school friends, who are many, and former pupils will be delighted to see this post.  You have certainly carried St Patrick's banner through life so, thank you once again and, please, "keep on keeping on"!