focus on fairholme | Volume 1 2013
sad passings
Jessie Martha Ferris (Anderson) (1932) Lorna Joyce Broadfoot (Hart) (1929-33) 30 July 2012
Margot Curtis (1943-44) FOGA Toowoomba Treasurer (1998-2012) 31 July 2012 Shirley Dougal (Sakzewski) (1950-57) 23 July 2012 Lyndal Fiechtner (Hardwood) (1961-65) 21 May 2013
Helen Fuller (Ferguson) (1942-44) Lynette Ann Gordon (Collard) (1959-60)
vales
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A Fairholme Farewell to one of our OLDEST Old Girls Muriel Krimmer was born on 31.12.1912 and attended Fairholme from 1925 to 1930. Her sister Dorothy was also a pupil around this time. This was Miss Culpin was headmistress and Muriel has very fond memories of her. Muriel was a prefect (pictured far left) and member of the basketball team which won the premiership of the Downs. Having passed the Senior exams in 1930, Muriel was invited by Miss Culpin to return as a member of staff, which she did for a couple of years on a wage of one guinea per week. After working for a couple of years in Toowoomba for Groom and Lavers, Muriel moved to Brisbane, working at the Electric Light Company and Goldsborough Mort. Muriel never married and maintained the friendships she made at Fairholme through FOGA.
Olive Jeitz (Bidstrup) (1934-36) 9 August 2012
In later years Muriel was handicapped through failing eyesight but managed to keep very much abreast of world affairs, both sporting and political, and resided at Compton Gardens Retirement Village at Aspley. She celebrated her 100th birthday on New Year’s Eve 2012 with her many nieces & nephews at Wheller Gardens, but sadly, she passed away on 28 March 2013.
Florence ‘Floss’ May Knight (Binns) (1940-41)
A treasured Treasurer
Dianne Mary Hegarty (Sharpe) (1964-65)
Muriel Krimmer (1927-31) 28 March 2013 Jessie McIntyre (1932-35) November 2012 Alice ‘Elsie’ McMullen (Carlyon) (1945) 22 March 2013 Margaret Muir (Nelson) (Dixon) (1935-38) Blanche Isabel Nelson Teacher (1946-66) 15 May 2013 Sally Ogilvie (Corner) (1952- 56) 25 May 2013 Shirley Peers Teacher (1962) Olive Mary Phipps (Colls) (1943) Jean Ryan (Hair) (1934-36) Nicolette Sealy (Munro) (1955-57) Faye Skuse (Smith) (1943-45) Saysie Thams (Denhert) (1934-36) Colleen Turner (George) (1952) 24 April 2013 Meredith Waddell (1956-64) 30 April 2013
The members of the Old Girls’ Association were saddened in July 2012 when their much-loved Treasurer, Margot Mary Curtis (1943-44) passed away on her 84th birthday. Margot very much enjoyed her involvement with the Old Girls, and was known for her attention to detail and meticulous record-keeping. She treasured her many friends from her days at Fairholme, and her dry wit and interest in all things Fairholme are sorely missed. Margot began her working days at the Millmerran Shire Council, and was then employed as a Bookkeeper at Perpetual Trustees and St Andrews’ Hospital. She was a dedicated volunteer with Meals on Wheels, and was recognised for having spent 60 years as a Justice of the Peace, and over 50 years as the Treasurer of the Range Tennis Club. Margot was the sister of Desley Coulton (Curtis) (1950-52), the sister-in-law of Daphne Curtis (Anderson) 1945-47) and the much loved Aunt and Great-Aunt of Jenny Sutton (Curtis) (1968-72), Katie Murray (Sutton) (1995-99) and Rachael Curtis (1998-2012). Margot is pictured here at Katie’s wedding in June 2012.
A well-travelled educator Miss Isabel Nelson came to Fairholme in 1946 as a young teacher and stayed for 20 years, leaving at the end of 1966 to work in Canada and the UK. Over the years she travelled through Europe, South America, South-East Asia and New Zealand with her good friend, June. Miss Nelson taught at St Hilda’s at Southport and St Carthage’s School in Brisbane during the 1970s before retiring to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, where she passed away on 15 May this year. She was 85. Miss Nelson, known to the girls as ‘Nellie’, taught Year 6 in the Fairholme Preparatory School until 1950, when she moved to the Upper School and taught Typing and Bookkeeping. She was Cameron House Mistress and Junior Form Mistress (Year 10) for a number of years. Miss Nelson was also a very good tennis player, and established the Fairholme Tennis Club in 1956. Fairholme Old Girls remember that she used to ride her pushbike to school, and also organised bicycle excursions to Drayton, where the girls would enjoy a picnic before riding their bikes all the way back to Fairholme.