O'Neills celebrate 55th wedding anniversary

Staff Reports

John and Nelle O'Neill celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary Sept. 11, 2010, with a family barbecue at their East Valley home. They were married in 1955 in Mattawan, N. J., and are the parents of two children and grandparents of four.

The O'Neills met as music students at Ithaca College in New York, and organized the Hornell Symphony. They moved to San Jose in 1963 where they founded the Los Gatos-Saratoga Symphony that John conducted for 18 years.

After 30 years of public school teaching in California, the O'Neills moved to Minden in 1992. With the help of the Douglas County Recreation Department and the school district, they founded the Carson Valley Violin School.

Nelle is an award-winning violin maker and John is a composer of music for young string players, with more than 25 works recorded by the Washington, D.C., Pops Orchestra and the Cleveland Strings.

Hear John's compositions and see Nelle make a violin at www.Music-FoodForTheBrain.com/johnoneill/jo.html