Màiri Nìll Theàrlaich

Mary Agnes (née Campbell) Gaudes was born January 3, 1900 in Hillsdale, Inverness County. She was one of six children born to Flora O’ Handley of Boisdale and Neil Campbell of Hillsdale. According to family tradition, her paternal grandfather Charles (Teàrlach “Mór) came to Nova Scotia from the Isle of Muck. The Campbells were a very musical family. Their home was filled with Gaelic singing, fiddling and piping. The family was very proficient in the Gaelic language.

A collection of her brother’s, Hector Campbell’s (1888 - 1976), material was published in “Luirgeann Eachainn Nill: Folktales from Cape Breton”. He was one of the foremost reciters of Gaelic traditional tales recorded in Cape Breton.

Mary and her sister Catherine went down to the “Boston States” in the late 1940s and they would come home to Cape Breton in the summers to visit family. Mary settled in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She married Paul E. Gaudes and they had three children. She died November 15, 1983.