A Family Tribute
One of Wesburn’s most colourful residents, Myra Healey, has passed away just a few months after celebrating her 100th birthday.
Myra was born in the back of Bowring’s grocery shop in Wentworth NSW, on Friday 3 November, 1916, and spent much of her life living in North Melbourne.
From an early age, Myra had a penchant for helping others and at age 11 collected 30 shillings for the Shrine of Remembrance building fund.
This was the start of her lifelong journey helping others in need of financial and indeed emotional care.
Myra went on to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars by arranging dances to provide ‘Comfort Funds’ for World War II troops serving abroad, parties for the DOXA Foundation to help build holiday camps for disadvantaged children, local schools and churches, down-and-outers and for Vietnam Veterans’ Association Memorial, of which she is an Honorary Member.
Arriving in Wesburn with her husband, Barney, more than 40 years ago, Myra quickly made her presence felt after joining the Upper Yarra Valley RSL, where she arranged Christmas, Anzac Day, St Patrick’s Day and other festive luncheons and events she could conjure up.
At age 98, Myra was the oldest and longest-serving president of any Legacy group in Australia.
She continued to breathe life into the club, staging her memorable theatre productions of Dimboola, and William and Kate’s Royal Wedding – good enough to tour regionally, she said!
One of her proudest moments was the construction and installation of the Lest We Forget illuminated cross that is a permanent fixture at the club.
To find the $12,000 to create the cross, Myra sought the services of entertainers Russell Morris and Colleen Hewett and placed a story in the ‘Herald Sun’ looking for someone to build the cross to her design.
In 1996, Myra made her own decision to hand in her driving licence and part with her three-ton 1972 V8 Red Rover car, citing that she did not want to take any chances that she might put herself or others at risk.
In the same year, Myra was adamant that the RSL club have a new Legacy flag after the old flag was stolen 18 months earlier.
Her dogged determination saw her wish realised, and the new flag was unveiled at a special ceremony at the RSL club some months later.
Recently, Myra, whose Wesburn home is named Lone Pine, bought a small pine tree that was grown from an original Gallipoli pine and planned to have it planted at her RSL club.
Myra passed away on 4 April, 2017.
