Dorothy Jean Looker
Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (09:58): They do not make them like Dorothy Jean Looker any more. Dot sadly passed away recently – 93 years young and after a very full life. Dot and her twin Margaret were born at the Walwa bush nursing hospital on 17 December 1930, making the local doctor late for the town’s annual Christmas party. The family then moved on to a farm between Walwa and Jingellic. When the 1939 fires hit the Upper Murray, Dot and Margaret were dispatched to the Murray River, ducking underwater as flames passed above. They were only nine years old. When the family shifted to Cudgewa, Dot became well known to the train drivers on the spur line, often hitching a ride after setting her rabbit traps. After that she moved temporarily to Melbourne as a young woman, and the legacy was that she was a lifelong mad Richmond Tigers supporter. She was in fact buried in a Tigers coffin when her service came about.
A member: Go Tiges.
Bill TILLEY: Yes, all right. Anyway, she married Vern in Albury in 1951, and they had five children – Denise, Robyn, Jan, Peter and Anthony – who produced a Tiger army of nine granddaughters, 20 great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren. Dot was an accomplished dairy farmer who decorated wedding cakes. She was a long-time volunteer with Neighbourhood Watch. Beating lung cancer at 78, only a broken wrist ended her golf at 91.