76 SEPTEMBER 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art, where she was a Legacy Society member and a top volunteer. A decade later, she moved into Bay Village, a senior community south of Sarasota, and promptly became a member of the program and events committee. Relations Ms. McKniff had already forged with the Ringling, the New College of Florida (NCF) music program, Selby Gardens, and other cultural organizations came in handy, as did her lifelong experience in managing people and programs. She was most proud, perhaps, of not only getting her fellow residents to attend an NCF experimental music program but to participate in it as well. Ms. McKniff’s health declined during the pandemic, but she never lost her enthusiasm for learning new things and making connections with and between others. Although she never stopped sending physical greeting cards to friends and acquaintances, social media suited her. In her last Facebook post, just a day before she died, she shared her winning Wordle score. Ms. McKniff is survived by her sister, Anne Marie Sheaffer, of Livermore, Calif. n Matilda “Til” Horn Purnell, 101, wife of the late Foreign Service Officer Lewis M. Purnell, died peacefully on May 28, 2023. Ms. Purnell was born on Sept. 1, 1921, in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, to Nettie Tappan and William Arden Horn. Her parents had grown up in Delaware, and during Ms. Purnell’s childhood, they divided their time between New York City and Rehoboth Beach. She would later return to live near Rehoboth and become an inspired defender of southern Delaware’s estuaries and wetlands. In 1945 Ms. Purnell married Lewis “Skipper” M. Purnell. That same year, he joined the Foreign Service, and together, the couple spent more than 30 years representing the United States in countries around the world. They had a series of postings in Italy just after World War II and also served overseas in Myanmar (then Burma), Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines. To that partnership Ms. Purnell contributed her organizational skills and proficiency in languages (Burmese, Malay, Japanese, Italian, and French), as well as her grace and wit. The weekly letters she wrote to her family back home are vivid evocations of their colorful and fast-paced diplomatic life. For special occasions, such as Christmas and birthdays, she also wrote, and would continue to write until close to the end of her life, comic verse in irregular rhythm, also known as doggerel, of incomparable virtuosity. A hospitable entertainer, Ms. Purnell delighted in hosting friends wherever she lived. While her husband served as deputy chief of mission in Jamaica, the couple hosted a reception for Dr. Martin Luther King when he came to give a commencement speech at the University of the West Indies in Kingston. The photo of Mr. Purnell with Dr. King was always displayed in their home and was also in Ms. Purnell’s nursing home room when she died. An assignment in Washington, D.C., from 1954 to 1958, was marked by a steady stream of visiting friends who stayed in the family’s Georgetown apartment, including the deputy prime minister of Burma. Upon their retirement in 1976, the Purnells moved to the shores of Herring Creek, an estuary of Rehoboth Bay. In her post-diplomatic life, Ms. Purnell was personality won everyone over. Ms. McKniff joined the anti-war movement upon her return to the U.S. 14 months later. She then held many jobs related to foreign affairs, women’s rights, and education, including a stint that required her to fly around the U.S. in the company of a monkey named Nelson. In 1981, Ms. McKniff found herself in London as the deputy director of the World Bureau of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. She joined the U.S. Information Agency in 1985, serving in Spain (twice), Guatemala, Mexico, Madagascar, and in France as the deputy director for Africa Regional Services. Ms. McKniff endeared herself to people in the arts, education, human rights, and other fields, while soaking up knowledge about their cultures and histories and traveling around the world to visit her widespread friends and colleagues. Her big heart facilitated her big life. She also introduced much of America to the Foreign Service when she called into the Car Talk program on National Public Radio to ask what sort of spare “cah pahts” she should bring to Madagascar, and then again 10 years later when the show’s hosts, “Click” and “Clack,” called her back to ask whether their advice had helped. In 2006, upon retirement to Sarasota, Fla., Ms. McKniff accidentally wound up as a foreign affairs adviser to thenSenator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, as well as a campaign worker on the ground in Iowa and Colorado. It may be hyperbole, but she is said to have personally called every Spanish-speaking voter in Colorado and learned enough Creole to call Haitian-American voters in Florida. After the 2008 election, Ms. McKniff transferred her energy and enthusiasm to
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