Connie (Kippen) Blaney

Connie (Kippen) Blaney has called Maxville her home for most of her life. She attended Maxville Public School and Maxville High School. She enjoyed playing sports, especially softball, where pitching was her forté, and hockey. She was also a high school pipe major. She has since taught and played the bagpipes as well as worked with the Glengarry Highland Games.

Over the years, Connie has become a very accomplished piper, learning first from her father, and later taking more formal lessons from Steve MacKinnon. Connie, who had natural talent for playing the bagpipes, won many awards as a teenager and later became known as the First Lady Piper in North America. She taught piping in Maxville for thirteen years and thus many of her students were prepared to play for the new-found Glengarry Highlanders Pipe Band formed in 1961.

Connie later joined the Glengarry Highland games committee and has held a number of positions over the years and she remains a director on the Highland Games committee today.