Pictures: Valerie O’Sullivan
Killarney’s queen of the tidy towns, the late Yvonne Quill, will be fondly remembered in a special two-hour radio show to be broadcast next Saturday morning.
The hugely popular and dynamic businesswoman, who led her hometown to the prestigious overall award in the national tidy towns competition in 2011, died last October and her passing caused widespread sadness and regret in the town on which she had most certainly left her mark.
Her life will be recalled in great detail on the Saturday Supplement on Radio Kerry on Saturday from 9.00am to 11.00am with presenter Frank Lewis chatting with many of those on whose lives Yvonne left a mark and many that had positive dealings with her down through the years.
The programme to remember and celebrate her life is guided by her husband, John, and daughter Sandra Dunlea and it will feature contributions from Pat Clifford, Michelle Cooper Galvin, Lisa Corkery, Marlyn Counihan, Peter Dunlea, Cormac Foley, Kathleen Foley, Donagh Gleeson, Michael Gleeson, Therese Irwin, Dan Kelliher, Christy McCarthy, Johnny McGuire, Mick Myers, Aileen O’Callaghan, Micheál Ó Coileain, Michael O’Leary, Padruig O’Sullivan, Mairead Quill, Peter Quill and Sean Quill.
It will reflect on her family’s involvement with The Café on College Street, how Yvonne (née Fleming) was the first person to cross the threshold in Muckross House when it opened to the public and her 25 years working as a volunteer to transform the appearance of Killarney.
Family and friends will also reflect on her year-round daily walks and swims in the national park and hoe she endlessly supported family and friends providing buns and cakes for every occasion.
Since Yvonne took hold of the reins of the Killarney Looking Good Committee, the best part of quarter of a century ago, the town never looked back in terms of the all-out push for tidy towns success with the local focus upgraded from promoting the use flower baskets and keeping roadside gardens neat to ensuring a greater, coordinated overall effort was made to be there or thereabouts when the top prizes were being distributed.
And, under her watch, Killarney achieved that goal and, in addition to the overall award, it has won several gold medals and county awards over the years.
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