by Karen Russo
Long time Palos Verdes Peninsula activist Jane McNeil passed away on June 28, just a few days short of her 90th birthday.
McNeil helped found Las Candalistas, and the Walk on the Wild Side, and was a recipient of the Anchor Award for her work as president of the Blind Children’s Center. She was also a founding member and president of the Los Angeles Music Center’s Master Chorale Associates and a past president of Club 100, the Music Center’s major support group.
McNeil and husband Larry were founding investors in Schramsberg Vineyards in Calistoga. They also planted Pinot Noir grapes on the family ranch in rural Nicasio in Marin County.
The McNeil family were active skiers, and early members of the Jack Kramer Tennis, Portuguese Bend and Abalone Shore clubs. She joined Discovery Travel in Redondo Beach, where she led groups to English and Scottish gardens and castles, Greece and Turkey, and art tours to Santa Fe and Taos.
She was born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and moved briefly to London with her family, before moving to Los Angeles, where her father worked for the Carnation Company. She attended Los Angeles High and then UC Berkeley, majoring in Home Economics, and began her lifelong membership in the Delta Gamma sorority. Upon graduation she taught at Piedmont High and soon met Naval Pilot Larry McNeil. They were married and moved to Manhattan Beach and then, in 1963 to Miraleste on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. There they raised their two children, Dennis and Sally.
She is survived by her son Dennis McNeil, daughter Sally Gallagher, and grandchildren Sean and Patrick Gallagher, Theresa (Tessa), Julia, and Maura McNeil, and her sister Lexis Allen.
Services will be held, August 2, at 11 a.m. at Saint Francis Episcopal Church, 220 Via Rosa, Palos Verdes Estates. ER
