(14 Feb. 1880-13 Sept. 1945), poet. (name May rather than Mary also found; Mrs T. J. Gormley, Florence Gormley) (date of birth 1879 also found) Born at Bainsville, GC. Parents: Linnaeus C. Hickey and his wife Catherine Elizabeth Empey. Mrs Gormley was of U E Loyalist ancestry through the Hickeys and the Empeys. She attended elementary school in Canada, and trained as a registered nurse, Syracuse, N.Y. She was married 21 Jan. 1903, at Dickinson’s Landing, Ont., to Thomas John Gormley (8 May 1864-27 July 1954), who was born at Morrisburg, Ont. (T.J. Gormley, Tom Gormley, Thomas J. Gormley). In 1905, she and her husband came to Alexandria. (Glengarry News 4 May 1905) At the beginning of his half-century in Alexandria, T.J. Gormley was a hotel keeper there at the Commercial Hotel, which members of his family had leased. (GN 21 April & 5 May 1905 ) He also opened a real estate office and was an insurance man. (GN 22 March 1912, and his obit. ) He was chosen reeve of Alexandria in 1921 to replace the late Alexander Cameron. (GN 7 Oct. 1921) Tom Gormley was also a town assessor, and was several times president of the local agricultural society (an organization concerned primarily with holding the local fair). In 1934, at the age of 70, he was named one of the two managers of the Alexandria Liquor Store. (GN 23 Nov. 1934)

     His brother Dr J. (Joe) C. Gormley, a physician who came to Alexandria from Crysler, practised briefly in Alexandria, being appointed a coroner for SDG during that time (Glengarry News 26 April 1918), but soon returned to Crysler. He was living in Chesterville at the time of his brother Tom’s death.

     Florence Gormley was active in the Red Cross Society in WWI and WWII. She was elected Jan. 1945 as one of the two joint presidents of the Alexandria unit of the Red Cross Society. (GN 19 Jan. 1945). She remained president for the rest of her life–which turned out to be less than a year. At the date of her death she was also liaison officer of the Glengarry branch of the Red Cross Society in connection with prisoner-of-war work. She was active in the St. Finnan’s Catholic Women’s League. A dedicated reader, and a painter in oils, she also wrote poetry. Her poems were published during World War II in the Glengarry News (see issues 1941 and 1942) and the Montreal Star. After her death her family published for private circulation an undated 14-page booklet of her poems under the title Poems by Florence Gormley. Written during the War of 1939-1945. Some of her poems have since been reprinted.

     She died in the Hotel Dieu Hospital, Cornwall. (fourteen children, eleven surviving her) The burial was at St. Finnan’s cemetery, Alexandria. When Mrs Gormley died five of her children were in the armed services overseas (Lt. Genevieve, Lt. Helen, Lt. Angus, Sgt. Gilbert, Cpl. Donald), and another, Gabrielle, a nursing sister in Montreal, was also in the armed services. Another daughter Florence was married (1) in 1943 to Bruce Macdonald (d. 1944), son of Col. A.G.F. Macdonald, and (2) to Dr J. W. Bernard Villeneuve. Another daughter, Joan, was married to Howard, the son of Dr and Mrs O’Hara, of Maxville.

Glengarry News 14 & 21 Sept. 1945, Standard Freeholder 15 Sept. 1945 * six of her poems are reprinted in Seaway Valley Poets, ed. Stephen Gill and Roland C. Hamel (1975), and 1 poem is reprinted in Glengarry Life No. 31 (1992), in both instances with brief biog. sketches; a poem is also in Manor Chatter Oct. 2001 * Lynne Cook, The Gormley Family of Dundas County: a Genealogical Study (1988) * obituary of T.J. Gormley, GN 29 July 1954 * obituary of Gilbert Gormley, GN 17 June 1981, and of Donald Gormley, GN 13 Aug. 2008 * her Red Cross work in WWI, WWII, GN 5 Nov. & 10 Dec. 1915, 9 Jan. 1942 * Ostrom 186 * gravestone, St. Finnan’s cemetery * Maxville (1991) 784 * private information * obituary of son Kenneth (b. 1916), polio victim, GN 12 March 1943 * obituary of Gabrielle Gormley, who died at Maxville Manor, Glengarry News 10 July 2002 * fine photo of Tom Gormley, his horses and house, GN 22 March 2000 * biog. sketch of her daughter, Mrs Joan Gormley O’Hara, for Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame, GN 17 July 2002, Vankleek Hill Review 24 July 2002 (both portrait)