Marianne Logan

She lived in Rapid City, S D and graduated from the High School in Rapid City. She took several courses in Writing Poetry at Amarillo College.

She married Grant “Mac” McNeil in March 1950 and had 3 sons. Grant “Steve” and Marty McNeil, of Amarillo, Roger Thomas and Leslie McNeil, of El Paso and Alan John McNeil of Amarillo. Grant died in 1991 at the VA hospital in Amarillo. She married Claude Logan in March 1994 and he passed away in 2012. She leaves behind three sisters, Loretta Hill and Marilyn Le Master both in Rapid City, SD and Marietta Cleary, her twin sister, in Ft Sumter, SC. One brother; Fred McFarland in Rapid City, SD. She also had two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

She began her writing career when her father passed away in 1982. She traveled extensively throughout the Southwest winning over 1,000 poetry contests. She was often the scheduled speaker when she went to the Black Hills in South Dakota. She was well known for her rhyming poetry

She was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She also received many prestigious awards, such as Hilton Ross Greer Award for outstanding Achievement from the Poetry Society of Texas, a Lifetime Membership in the Poetry Society of Texas and Panhandle Professional Writer Heritage from Southwest Cowboy Poets Association for helping to establish cowboy poetry in this area with the help of Mary Ann Lee they set up monthly cowboy poetry breakfasts at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in 1991.

Twice she placed in the Annual International Writers’ Digest “100 Top Poets”, and in 1996 was the Texas winner in the Arts Division of the Colonel’s Way Award for Senior Citizens’ Super Achievers.

She founded the Senior Citizens Writing Group at the Amarillo Senior Citizens Center where 56 writers were published; set up Tri-State Fair Literary Contests and writing displays at the annual “Taste the Arts” at Westgate Mall and started” Poems in Your Pocket” celebration in Amarillo, She was well known for her willingness to help other writers achieve their goals as well.

Her accomplishments are too numerous to mention. She will be greatly missed not only by her family but also her many friends and writers, as well.

The family would like to extend their sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to her beloved friend Phyllis Green for providing love and support for over 50 years.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Senior Citizen Center in downtown Amarillo or the Panhandle Poetry Society.

Arrangements under the direction of Memorial Park Funeral Home & Cemetery, Amarillo, TX.