Penelope O'Neil

The energy that was P.A. O’Neil joined the cosmos on November 23, 2017, after a brief battle with cancer. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, at Parkway Funeral Service, 2330 Tyler Parkway, Bismarck. Penelope Ann O’Neil was born on June 8, 1948, in Dickinson, ND, to Patrick and Margery (Guenther) O’Neil. She was raised on a farm in Beulah, ND, where she completed grades one through eight at Antelope Valley School, a one room rural school, and graduated in 1966 from Beulah High School. In 1971, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a French minor from Mary College. P.A. loved the French language and spent a semester in Quebec. She put her knowledge to good use and demonstrated her sly sense of humor by labeling all her sister’s moving boxes in French. P.A. was an accomplished seamstress and clothing designer and was a creative quilter. She also crocheted anything from doilies to tablecloths. She was an avid reader and with the help of her brother, her multitude of books followed her from home to home resulting in his observation that before he agreed to help someone move, he wanted to know if he or she was a reader. If so, his answer would be an emphatic, no. P.A. loved to explore out of the way locations and guided willing travelers along deserted country roads to seldom visited sites or to just enjoy the scenery and wildlife. One summer, she planned a trip for her sister’s family. Along their route, they added another sister and niece. Nine people traveled, slept, and ate in a van designed to sleep two all the way to the Grand Canyon and beyond! Not only were the lucky travelers entertained by the sights, her nieces and nephews learned that Little Rabbit Foo Foo’s choice was to stop bopping field mice on the head or be turned into a goon! She learned that to entertain children means you have to accept repetition as they begged her to tell Foo Foo’s story, “one more time.” Her mind was a storehouse of carefully locked-away and sorted knowledge, and she was a source of trivia long before Google. After teaching English in several small ND towns, P.A. attended Loretto Heights College in Denver, pursuing a degree in photography – another of her many hobbies. But, she found her true calling when she earned her nursing degree from the University of Mary. P.A. practiced nursing by caring for the elderly in Bismarck, Hettinger, and Elgin. She had great affection for the people she served and named her cats, Clarence, and Oscar, after two of her favorites. A believer in equality and fairness for all, she held strong and researched beliefs throughout her life. P.A. will be missed by her siblings, Katherine (Myron) Netzer, Jude (Larry) Zich, Pat (Peggy) O’Neil, Maureen (Don) Schnaidt; many nieces and nephews; and great nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her father, mother, and infant sister.