Viola McRae
At a time when a lot of ladies start to think of leading a more sedate life style, Viola McRae is an exception. She is still on the mound hurling strikes in a ball game, sometimes playing along with her daughter. She is active for the Atlantic Hotel team in the Alexandria League and for the Dairy Queen team in the Cornwall League.
Getting involved in softball goes back to the age of 16 when Viola started playing softball in grade 12 in Maxville. They were short of players, in particular a catcher, so she started here. During the summers in high school she attended Camp Kagama, situated near Cornwall to improve her softball skills. Although she enjoyed the position of catcher, she has been pitching ever since.
After graduating from high school she married Menzies McRae (no relation) and moved to the family farm, which they operated until their second son took over the dairy operation. There they raised a family of 6 sons and 1 daughter.
In the late 50’s, Viola served as sec-treasurer for the Roxborough Junior Farmers. Their centennial project was to bring library service to Moose Creek, Avonmore and Monkland, and by 1968 a branch library was in existence in Moose Creek.
As president of the Stormont Junior Farmers in 1965 their centennial project was to provide Centennial signs to all farms in the county that had been in the same family for 100 years. Her husband’s farm has been in the family since 1839.
Viola believes that the Junior Farmers organization was responsible for her gradual return to softball and other sports as she played in the county softball team during the 60’s.
In 1991 Viola joined the Toyota Dealership in Maxville as business manager as well as doing income tax returns at home; she remained there until 2000. She now cares for her 2 grandchildren.
In the early 70’s Viola became serious about softball and played for Moose Creek in a fastball league. She won a trophy for ability and sportsmanship along with one for the highest batting averages in the league. She also played for the “Midnite Stars” in Alexandria. Later the team became the Roadrunners, Jette’s Hillbillies, Ray’s, Roy’s Garage and finally in 2000 the Atlantic Hotel She accumulated many honours and was the team MVP in 1971,75,76,78,83,86,91,93,96,97 and 2001. She was the “A” league playoff MVP in 1994 and 2001 and the “B” league play-offs MVP in 1988 and 1996 and was the league season MVP in the Alexandria Ladies League in 2001.
The winter of the 70’s saw Viola playing goal for the Moose Creek Wild Cats in the Rideau Hockey League. later she was playing center on a recreational hockey team along with daughter Laurie. Money to finance the hockey teams came from ball tournaments which she helped to organize in the summer. The league began changing from fast pitch to slow pitch due to a lack of pitchers and it was harder to find teams to enter the tournaments.
In the 80’s Viola played ball hockey in the summer and sponge puck in the winter in Alexandria with many of the same players from the fast ball team. She was also playing broomball for the Ottawa Hotel team in Alexandria and for the Avonmore team in Finch.
In 1989 Viola was MVP in the Cornwall ladies commercial league and also won the Reg Campbell Memorial Award for the most dedicated player in 1994.
In the mid 90’s found Viola playing organized women’s recreational hockey and she continues to play weekly in Williamstown. She has played on winning and losing teams throughout her career. She does not worry too much about the win or the loss column, but she still has that competitive spirit when she takes to the mound.
Viola will continue to play ball as long as she can help the team. She admits she is the oldest player in the present league but sees nothing unique in the fact she’s still playing softball at the age of 65.
Viola and Menzies now have 11 grandchildren and most are involved in a sport of some sort. She sometimes wonders as she looks back how they ever got the farm work done, children fed and off to school, but credits it to team work!
As is evident Viola has led a very active community and family life and she has more than “lived life to the fullest”. As yet she shows ‘no sign of slowing down’
