MAGRATH, Oonagh Brigid —
Passed away Saturday, April 22, 2017 in Mississauga in her 81st year. Born August 8, 1936, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the youngest of four children of the late Angus Lewis Macdonald and Agnes (Foley) Macdonald. In addition to her parents, Oonagh was predeceased by her husband Neil Magrath, brother Angus and sisters Eileen and Coline. She is survived by her three children: Angus Keiller (Andrea Moss), Kelowna, BC, Gavin Neil, Toronto, ON and Bronwen Alexandra (Jon McKechnie), Nottingham, England. Oonagh was the proud and loving grandmother of Cassidy Magrath and Lily May and Sullivan McKechnie. She is also survived by her nieces Eileen Littleboy, Jane Dorsey and Brigid Dorsey, her nephew Laurens Dorsey and many cousins.
In Halifax, Oonagh attended the Sacred Heart Convent and went on to study and teach at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.
During her career she worked as a Child Psychologist for the Toronto, Dufferin and Peel Separate School Boards, where she helped innumerable young people in support of their education. She continued to consult long after retirement.
Oonagh was married in 1972 to Neil Magrath and started her family, to whom she was extremely devoted. They shared a love of the outdoors, spent summers at their cottage north of Toronto, and often went camping and canoeing in the Ontario wilderness. In winters, they frequently vacationed in Antigua where they had numerous friends.
She was a very social and caring woman who loved to garden, play bridge and golf. She had an abiding love for her Siamese cats. Enormously proud of her Nova Scotia roots, she would find a “Nova Scotia connection” almost anywhere she went, and flew the Nova Scotia flag at her cottage every summer. She loved the arts, frequently attended the theatre and Toronto Symphony and donated regularly to the local PBS station. She was a voracious reader, and often played the piano, a love for which she developed at her mother’s side.
She will be loved and long remembered by all her family and many friends.
Visitation will be held at Glen Oaks Funeral Home, 3164 Ninth Line, Oakville (at Dundas St.), 905-257-8822, on Thursday, April 27, 2017 from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Memorial donations may be made to Friends of Algonquin Park or the Canadian Cancer Society . Online condolences can be made through