J.J. McColl (aka Joan E. Humphrey) passed away on September 23, 2008 from complications of ALS, the diagnosis of which had been made a brief six months ago. J.J. will be remembered by everyone who knew her as a woman of marvellous talent with boundless energy and great enthusiasm for life and all that it encompassed.

J.J. McColl per www.menopositive.ca

J.J. was born on December 24, 1936.  In the early 1960's she had the distinction of becoming Vancouver's first female DJ/talk show host with CJOR Radio.  She went on to host a daily two-hour music/interview/talk program on CBU-FM Radio in Vancouver, was co-host and Assistant Producer of The James Beard Show for the CTV Network, freelance reporter for CBC Radio/TV London, U.K. and Hornby Island, B.C., radio documentarian and contributor to B.C. Folio CBC Radio, award winning CBC radio drama writer, host 50/Up CBC Television and playwright/lyricist/co-composer of Menopositive! The Musical (which ran in Vancouver for three months in 1998) and We're Still Hot! The Musical.  J.J. began writing radio dramas for CBC in the early 1980's and her play Mothering which focused on Alzheimer's Disease was acknowledged one of the best CBC radio dramas of the decade. She was a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. and A.C.T.R.A. and was a long-standing member of the CBC 20 Year Association - B.C. Chapter.

J.J. to her colleagues and Joan to family and friends, is survived by her husband of six years, former MLA and MP Frank Howard.  She was 71 years of age.