{"id":7600,"date":"2025-05-21T10:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T14:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=7600"},"modified":"2025-05-23T22:32:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T02:32:26","slug":"william-t-bill-mcnelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/?p=7600","title":{"rendered":"William T. \u201cBill\u201d McNelis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Hornell, NY<\/p>\n

William T. \u201cBill\u201d McNelis – 81 – of 469 McKinley Avenue, Hornell, died May 21, 2025, surrounded by his loving family following a long illness.\u00a0 Bill was a relentless fighter who defied medical expectations.\u00a0 His life was a tribute to his spirit and \u201cnever give up\u201d attitude.\u00a0 Bill was an avid conversationalist who never missed an opportunity to catch up with friends and share a laugh.<\/p>\n

Born in Hornell on June 12, 1943, he was the son of Robert & Catherine (Quackenbush) McNelis.<\/p>\n

Bill was a graduate of Hornell High School (class of 1962) and later earned his associate\u2019s degree in accounting from the Rochester Business Institute (RBI).<\/p>\n

He was employed for 30 years at the New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG), retiring in 1993 as a lineman.\u00a0 He also served as steward at the Knights of Columbus for several years.<\/p>\n

Bill was a member of Our Lady of the Valley Parish and a communicant of St. Ann\u2019s Church.\u00a0 He served as a trustee for the Village of North Hornell. He was also a 3rd degree member of the Hornell Knights of Columbus.<\/p>\n

For 8 years, Bill served as a coach for the Hornell Midget Football League.\u00a0 He also coached Little League Baseball for 3 years and Babe Ruth League Baseball for 12 years.\u00a0 He was an avid sports fan who was especially loyal to the New York Yankees and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.<\/p>\n

He was married on September 19, 1964, to the former Mary Daniels who died April 28, 2005.\u00a0 He was also preceded in death by two brothers, Robert (Sue) McNelis & John McNelis; sister, Mary (Tom) McKinley; grandson, John David McNelis.<\/p>\n

Surviving are his fianc\u00e9, the former Nancy\"\" Stevens-Loper and her family.\u00a0 Also surviving are 1 son, John (Beth) McNelis of Penn Yan; 1 daughter, Kathy (Joe) Flint of North Hornell; 2 brothers, Dave (Mary) McNelis of Elmira and Jim (Marianne) McNelis of Loon Lake; 2 sisters, Bridget (David) McBride and Ellen (Mike) Eckstein, both of Addison; sister-in-law, Cheryl McNelis of Hornell; 6 grandchildren, Mackenzie (Scott Betts) McNelis, Kelsie (Michael) Wick, Will McNelis, Alex (Liset) Flint, Spencer (Victoria) Flint and Elliott (Lauran) Flint; great-granddaughters Rafaela Flint and Vera Flint; many nieces & nephews whom he loved; many loving brothers- and sisters-in-law.<\/p>\n

The family of William T. McNelis will receive friends on Friday, May 30th from 4 \u2013 7 PM at the Dagon Funeral Home, 38 Church St., Hornell, NY.\u00a0 A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, May 31st at 10:00 AM at St. Ann\u2019s Church with burial in St. Mary\u2019s Cemetery.<\/p>\n

Bill\u2019s family request that memorial contributions in his name be made to CareFirst Hospice, 3805 Meads Creed Road, Painted Post, NY 14870 or St. Jude Children’s Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 or by visiting https:\/\/www.stjude.org\/donate\/.\u00a0 Memorial forms will be available at the Dagon Funeral Home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hornell, NY William T. \u201cBill\u201d McNelis – 81 – of 469 McKinley Avenue, Hornell, died May 21, 2025, surrounded by his loving family following a long illness.\u00a0 Bill was a relentless fighter who defied medical expectations.\u00a0 His life was a tribute to his spirit and \u201cnever give up\u201d attitude.\u00a0 Bill was an avid conversationalist who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7603,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions\/7603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dagonfuneralhome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}