By JESSE GRAHAM
ONE of Healesville’s oldest residents passed away earlier this month, leaving a legacy of community involvement and warm family memories.
Pixie Stanley (nee Kennedy) died on 1 May, aged 102, at Holmwood Aged Care Facility in Healesville.
Born in Broken Hill in New South Wales on 19 May to Ethel and Thomas Kennedy, Pixie and her family lived in a cottage in the town until Pixie was seven years old.
The family relocated to Healesville, and Pixie became a student at the Healesville State School.
Known as a hard-worker, Pixie worked in a cake shop at the age of 14, before becoming a live-in housemaid at the Grand Hotel, working six days a week, while also working two nights a week at the Memorial Hall as an usherette.
Pixie met Geoff Stanley while working at the hotel, and from their talking each night, the two fell in love and married after seven years, in 1934.
After marrying, Pixie took a break from work at the behest of her husband, but returned to the workforce when the depression hit, eventually opening a haberdashery business at the east end of town.
Together, Geoff and Pixie raised four children – Lorraine (deceased), Trevor, Tony and Marlene, moving into a house that Geoff had built in 1953 after living in the back of their shop.
Sadly, Pixie lost her husband only 10 years later.
Having to fend for herself and Marlene, who was still at school, she started working at French’s Laundry, not finishing up until the age of 78.
Her independence was long lasting, with Pixie going into care at Holmwood at the age of 99, but she kept up with her favourite hobbies, such as knitting, even as her eyesight deteriorated.
Her grandson, Healesville’s Brett Stanley, said he had warm memories of Pixie, and that his favourite memory of his grandmother was her enthusiasm for cooking.
“She was a mad cooker on an old wood stove,” he said.
“She burnt out around four wood ovens – she was one of the best cooks, with her pies, pasties and cream sponges.”
Brett said she was incredibly involved in Healesville over the years, and that her memory had stayed sharp right until the end.
At the age of 102, Pixie Stanley was a mother to four, a grandmother to 12 and a great grandmother to 30.
She suffered a stroke on Tuesday 29 April, before passing away on Thursday 1 May.
Pixie Stanley was given a warm farewell by friends and loved ones at St John’s Anglican Church – the same church she had married in – on Friday 9 May.
