Mary Ellen (Canniff) Canniff
Obituaries
Vail Daily page A9 - June 6, 2008
One of Vail’s most beloved early residents, Mary Ellen Canniff, passed peacefully in her Los Angeles home on April 10 after a five-year battle with cancer.
As wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, neighbor and mischievous Irish lass, she leaves behind a legacy of love and friendship that unites us and challenges us to boldly live out the rest of our time here.
Born on Feb. 21, 1943, in Boston, Mary Ellen was the youngest child of William Clifton Canniff and Helen Frances Veronica McCarthy. She graduated from Archbishop Williams High in 1960 and earned her associate degree from Bryant College.
Like many young people forsaking establishment life, Mary Ellen moved West in 1967 and soon settled in the eccentric, laughter-filled, pedestrian-oriented, new resort village of Vail. Here she opened the Vail Secretarial Service to bring some order to the chaos.
She also slung drinks and served steaks at early Vail haunts like the Cornuti Bar and Clock Tower Inn. Often she could be found checking IDs downstairs at the Nu Gnu night club.
Mary Ellen will always be an integral character in some of early Vail’s great stories ” like the time she was hauling a heavy tray of beer at the Cornuti and happened to walk between the dart board and the strong arm of an unsteady dart thrower. The dart landed in her arm, and she worked the rest of the night with it sticking out of her like a trophy.
In 1970, Mary Ellen went to Europe to work on the award-winning documentary film, “One By One,” about the Grand Prix race car circuit, directed and produced by early Vailites Claude DuBoc, John Tully and Pete Leavell. It was the beginning of her real career. She moved with the film company to Los Angeles, CA.
Forging a fearless combination of hard work and no-nonsense attitude, she succeeded in Hollywood in both motion pictures and television. Her credits include “CHiPs,” “Colombo,” “Big Hawaii,” “Beauty and the Beast,” Hal Ashby’s 1982 documentary of the Rolling Stones, “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” Charles Bronson’s “Borderline” and many others.
Mary Ellen made many lifelong friends in both Colorado and California. They became her family, and she was the glue that kept them all connected.
In 1984, Mary Ellen met the love of her life, Danny Gill, when they both worked on the television series “Sledgehammer.” Inseparable from the beginning, the two shared in 11 years what most couples hope to share in a lifetime, filling their days with long hours in the motion picture industry, and taking breaks to enjoy diving in Cozumel and hiking in the mountains north of L.A.
Mary Ellen’s friend Claude DuBoc summed up the feelings of many who were blessed to share her time in Vail:
“The world is impoverished. When viewed in a fading perspective and in truer proportion, the charm and gaiety of your companionship, and the generous majesty of your nature will be forever embedded within us all. God Bless, M.E. It was my extreme good fortune to have known you, shared the experience, and felt myself in the presence of an extraordinary being.”
Mary Ellen is survived by stepdaughters Lesley (Greg) Hlatky (and two grandchildren, Aiden and Elle), of Dillberg, Pa, and Dannielle Parker, of San Diego; brother William (Nancy) Canniff, of Beaufort, S.C.; sister Alice (Bill) Dubois, of Plymouth, Mass..; as well as many nieces, nephews and cousins, in Boston and County Cork, Ireland.
Vail has a beautiful Memorial Park in East Vail. Mary Ellen’s family of friends would like to place a memorial to her there. We can have either a rock in the running wall for $2,000 or a flagstone for $1,000.
If you would like to help remember Mary Ellen in this way, please send a check made out to the Vail Memorial Park for any amount that you are comfortable with. Send your check to Merv Lapin, 232 West Meadow Drive, Vail, CO 81657. Merv suggests a contribution between $50 and $150 per person.
Memorial gifts may also be made to several institutions which Mary Ellen supported: Southern Poverty Law Center, The American Cancer Society, Amnesty International or the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
View and a
Vail Trail page 14 - June 13, 2008
