Fay McKenzie-Edmonds (née Watts)

Born 2 months premature on 13th April 1934 weighing only 3lb to Irene and Richard Watts, doctors declared she wouldn’t survive. However, mum, together with her older brother Kevin and parents, went on to thrive.

They lived at 6 Charlescot Ave Punchbowl for mum’s entire formative years. There she attended the local Primary School and St Saviour’s Anglican Church. She fondly recalls being fascinated by the Bible, the church’s adjacent graveyard and the people’s stories behind the headstones.

Mum’s distinctive flaming red curly hair and fair skin were complimented by the lovingly homemade knitted and sewn garments she wore. Irene ensured her daughter did not leave home without being clean, and groomed – in short, putting one’s best foot forward.

Outside of school and church, mum’s childhood and teen years were spent at ballet and piano lessons, tap dancing, physical culture and playing tennis. Together with Kevin, mum also spent many hours at a local ballroom dancing studio. Spare time was often shared with her life-long best friend and neighbour Yvonne de Carle. Thriving scholastically, both girls went on to attend the selective St George Girls’ High School, spending at least 4 hours commuting daily to/from Kogarah on foot and train. Mum enjoyed studying languages; Latin, German, French as well as English literature.; subjects which she enjoys to this day. She was the school tennis champion and by age 16, had won 11 trophies.

Mum graduated high school in 1950 and attended the June Dally Watkins Finishing School which included elocution, deportment and etiquette training. At the same time mum became a volunteer worker on weekends at the protestant Children's home Dulwich Hill.

In 1951 the CSIRO Division of Metrology employed mum to undertake standards measurements, including depth of depression in golf balls. She also went on to do optical technician training at the OPSM laboratory at Palmer St Sydney, carrying out optical prescription audits.

At age 16 mum became Champion of both the under 17s Canterbury - Bankstown Night Tennis Competition and Sydenham – Bankstown Tennis Association. Slazenger recognised mum further by sponsoring her in entry in the Miss NSW (1953) Quest.

In 1954 two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) visited the family home. Eventually mum and her brother joined and became very much involved in the LDS church and its activities from that day forward.

Later that same year, mum went to attend her brother Kevin’s wedding, who by then was living and studying in the USA. She then travelled northerly to Canada with one of the missionary Clayton Lank’s sisters. Mum stayed much longer than originally planned in British Columbia, as her friendship with Clayton blossomed and mum again secured employment as an optical technician. Clayton and Mum married and their first child Deborah Anne was born late 1955.

The family of 3 eventually travelled to Sydney. Whilst living with her parents in 1957 at Punchbowl, I was born. Mum and Clayton then moved into their first family home built at One Tree Point Padstow Heights.

It wasn’t long before 3 more children grew the family tree–Clinton in 1960, Wayne in 1962 and Vernon in 1964. Due to her husband’s LDS priesthood commitments, most evenings mum was a “single parent”. So typical bedtime ritual for my siblings and I, was settling into bed and mum either playing guitar or piano and singing as storytelling; it was her brilliant ‘crowd control’ strategy. Motherhood, housewifery and church activities consumed mum’s waking hours from 1955 to 1966, and apparently, she rarely sat down for a meal nor read a book during those years.

Instead, mum filled her days with sewing, knitting, tending to her children and maintaining a wonderful home – beautifully decorated with home sewn curtains. She even tried ginger beer production. Ours was a family of small means but I cannot remember wanting for anything. There were always constructive things to do, music to learn and chickens to feed.

Not only was Mum well suited to motherhood, she threw her energy and talents into leading the LDS Sunday school choir, playing the organ, as well as teaching herself after 1 paid lesson, how to play the guitar.

Despite our very minimal financial means, we were all encouraged to develop our individual gifts, thus we attended ballet and piano lessons. Debbie and I were also auditioned for musicals and much of our out of school hours were spent with mum learning new songs and polishing our performance for church services, musicals and concerts. She also taught Sunday school classes for several years.

In 1967 mum took all 5 children on our first overseas adventure. We travelled 4 weeks by ship to Vancouver, where 4 of the 5 of us met our paternal grandparents for the first time. We lived on their British Columbia farm and went to the local school, thrilled by all the new experiences that beautiful provincial Canada offers. Mum organised for Debbie, Clint and I to do Australian school curriculum by correspondence so that we wouldn’t lag behind our peers when we eventually returned to OZ.

Throughout that year overseas, Mum dedicated a lot of time and energy to developing “The Lank Sisters trio” – Mum, Debbie and I. Our repertoire swiftly grew through mum teaching us new songs and polishing her guitar playing in preparation for concerts and family visitors. As Grandpa Lank played the fiddle and many of his friends and neighbours played washboard banjo etc, most of our evenings revolved around old time dances and jam sessions at home. Thanks to mum, we added bongos and wobble board to our American and Australian folk song repertoire; the latter was a big hit amongst our North American radio and live audiences.

Not to miss the North American stint’s opportunity to visit her brother, we rode Greyhound buses to Salt Lake City (SLC) Utah. By that time brother Kevin and his wife Myrle had 4 sons, so our SLC family comprised 9 children and 3 adults harmoniously under the one roof for about 6 months. All us school aged children attended Cottonwood Elementary School, and again beyond those hours of reading, writing and playing sport, relishing our American living experiences and Mormon activities.

We children have always been so loved and provided for; we were blissfully unaware that the year away was a planned marital separation. When the marriage ended in 1968, 6 of us went to live in our maternal grandparents’ holiday home on the Esplanade waterfront at Ettalong Beach for a year or so. Clayton had inexplicably disappeared; despite a court order to the contrary, he relocated to Canada – never to support his family again.

So, as those were the days of no social security for a single mother and to keep the wolves from the door, we returned to the Punchbowl family home whilst mum found her feet back in the commercial world. Initially mum worked as a cashier (but then went on to be a bookkeeper) at Mansours. Mum also worked part time as ‘Miss Polaroid’, even though she had rarely taken a photo!

I recall mum receiving a couple of suitors during her single days. When the doorbell rang, we would all rush to see who it was; imagine how a guy would feel dating someone with 5 children under 12 in tow! But this didn’t seem to deter one guy – Bruce McKenzie, whom she eventually married.

In 1969 we moved to a newly built home in Castle Hill. In 1971 Mum’s sixth child Richard was born. Everyone else was at school, so Mum sewed and knitted all our school uniforms and any other items we needed. If she didn’t know how to make it, she would research and learn. Somehow, she also found the time to continue her genealogical research and continue her own self – development.

Around 1972 mum made the quantum leap from home-based mother to full time paid employment, as the purchasing officer at Constan. Everyone at Constan struggled with the newly installed computer system, but not mum; it sparked her interest and stimulated her curiosity. Mum understood its functionality and embraced it. At the same time after working hours she began an accountancy course, as well as learned how to paint porcelain in her little spare time. In short, she continued to be a mother, housewife, and painting porcelain, which she eventually sold.

In 1977 mum was unexpectedly widowed when Bruce, had a motor bike accident. Somehow, she carried on, working 16-hour days to provide for her family of 5; by that stage 3 of her children had left home. Mum was completing over 1000 pieces each year, to not only satisfy her creative urges, but to ensure her family’s financial stability.

In the early 1980s mum embraced the emerging digital technology and all its benefits – buying her first desktop personal computer for Christmas 1986. Thanks to sons Vernon and Richard, she has continued to evolve her computer literacy, adding various printers, routers, boosters, WiFit, ePad, and 2 screens desktops as technology has evolved. I’m wondering how many octogenarians have their own website, use borrow box and eBooks? Mum’s apps and podcasts and audio books have given her thousands of hours of joy over the years; she has never stopped being curious or spending much time and energy learning.

In 1985 mum went to technical college to do a Diploma in Family History Research, which she successfully completed in 1988. The original multi-tasker, mum continued studying and increasing her supply of saleable porcelain pieces. She became a member of the NSW Porcelain Painters Association, regularly operating their shop in the Argyle Arts Centre, the Rocks, as well as supplying customised pieces for 5 galleries. Mum also learned to teach porcelain painting with full classes, operating from her home-based studio.

Whilst working at Constan she met and eventually fell in love with Bill Edmonds whom she married in 1994. They moved to a beautiful home in Freeman Ave Castle Hill, for which mum sewed every soft furnishing. Eventually both mum and Bill left Constan, preferring to assist Bill’s son Bruce and his wife in their Rotago business at Sylvania. In 2000, Bill and mum sold the family home and moved into an apartment on the water at Cabarita, where they now reside. They continued to work part-time at Rotago, until it was sold to Garden, Yard, Construction (GYC), where Bill still works.

But whilst Mum’s time dedicated to motherhood reduced and time as Nana Mac increased, she has relished those very special relationships as 1 by 1, 13 grandchildren were born.

In Mum’s ‘semi-retired’ life she has typically made the most of every day. When not helping out with the needs of her family members, she has worked constantly in various voluntary capacities, specifically;

• 22 years caring for and helping her mother after her father died in 1985;
• 33 years as a Genealogical Librarian at LDS Church libraries – teaching family research to thousands;
• 11 years knitting hundreds of baby garments for the Concord Hospital fundraising shop; donating items for their market stall;
• 2 years played piano for Concord Hospital patients;
• Voluntary teaching rolls intermittently over the last 68 years;
• Research - helping orphan friends finding their real parents;
• Latin will translation work for the LDS Church, and was asked to be adjudicator but chose not to;
• George IV Inn accounts, administration and banking for her grandson Luke 2006 – 2010, as well as research of the Hotel’s heritage so that a government grant could be obtained for repairs.

A constant creator and producer, mum has enthusiastically increased time in her intellectual pursuits: researching family history, supporting hundreds of strangers and close friends to discover their heritage.

From 2014 – 2019 mum contributed greatly to the University of the 3rd Age (U3A) literary appreciation classes. When their head teacher Francis passed away, mum has gone on to lead many of the classes and sensitively collaborated on subjects to be researched and discussed by the group.

Throughout her life, mum’s contentment and sense of accomplishment have always been realised through her loving motherhood practices, caring for her partner, teaching, sewing, knitting and creating an aesthetically and emotionally welcoming home.

Mum has never looked old to me. She emanates beauty from within, whilst her beauty regime is as sophisticated as soap and home concocted honey or oatmeal facial masks. Makeup has been a touch of mascara and lipstick. And her lovely figure and health can be attributed to constant hard work, dancing, tennis, and in later years, WiFit then Pilates.

Yes, my dearest mother you have done your very best and are a good and faithful servant of our Lord

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Memoir

The following is an essay written by me [Fay] at the request of Professor Trevor MacLaughlin at Macquarie University during a course entitled "Digging up your Irish Ancestors"

June 1984.

My birth was apparently heralded with more than the usual joy, owing to the fact that the doctors had indicated to my mother that I would in all probability not be born alive, being expected in June and arriving in April. I weighed only 3 lbs but obviously survived.

My childhood at 6 Charlescot Ave.,Punchbowl was extremely happy with one brother Kevin Richard Watts and two loving parents Richard Henry Watts and Irene Emily Elizabeth (Reece) Watts. Having been born with the fairest possible skin and perhaps an Irish legacy of red hair the only real irritation I remember as a child was never being allowed out in the hot Australian sun without being covered as near as possible from head to toe. A much later knowledge of the effects of the sun proved my mother to be singularly wise in her foresight.

My schooling began at Punchbowl Infants' School and subsequently at St. George Girls' High School. The latter was a selective school (then) at Kogarah. My lifelong friend Yvonne de Carle (later Foster) and I being the only 2 selected to go from that area.

My first job was at the Division of Metrology in the Sydney University grounds where I was being trained as an "Observer". However I only stayed there 14 months and then went to work for Optical Prescriptions and Spectacle Makers in Palmer St.Sydney. This was their Laboratory where I was trained as an Optical Technician.

At about the age of nineteen I began to have more serious thoughts about life and decided that I would like to do more for less fortunate children about whom I'd heard but never known. Consequently I spent week-ends at the Protestant Federation Children's Home in Garnet St.Dulwich Hill helping with the 87 children housed there. In particular I took them (with other help of course) to church on Sunday mornings and afternoons. As the home was non-denominational they were taken to 5 different churches in sequence. i.e. one denomination per week. Perhaps because of this I began to have a greater interest in the various teachings of each denomination.

My brother meanwhile had left on one of the Orient Liners for England and on the way (unbeknown to us) had met 2 returning Mormon missionaries. He lived in London while studying there and eventually joined the Mormon Church there.

By a strange coincidence and wholly unrelated to my brother's activities, 2 Mormon missionaries came to our door to preach this religion. Naturally we assumed that Kevin had sent them at the time.I began attending the Bankstown branch of the church which eventually changed its location to Punchbowl.

My brother, after a year or so in London, left for Utah where he attended the Brigham Young University. He met and married Merle Barney in 1954. I left by the Orient Liner "Oronsay" to attend their wedding in Manti Utah, later being baptised myself in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada.

Before going to Canada I lived with the Marble family in Exchange Place Salt Lake City (they had taken care of Kevin when he first arrived) and began making arrangements to attend Brigham Young University in Provo.

Meanwhile one of the 2 missionaries who had first knocked on our door had returned home to Canada and had heard of my arrival in Salt Lake. He sent his sister to visit me. He had actually been in Vancouver when the "Oronsay" docked there (before I took a train to Salt Lake City) but he had not found me. I had not known he was even there so did not look for him.

His sister intended to holiday back in Canada and while arrangements were being made to go to B.Y.U. I was invited to go with her.

Unfortunately, once there, the American Immigration did not look on me favourably and I was not allowed to enter the U.S. again as a student.

As I had no papers allowing me to stay in Canada either I was, for a while, a woman without a country. Fortunately there was a Mormon fellow in the Immi- gration Dept. in Vancouver who took pity on my and allowed me to stay with a "Landed Immigrants Visa". It was all very inconvenient as everything I owned other than a few clothes was back in Salt Lake City.

I began to work as an Optical Technician in Vancouver and soon became engaged to the first Missionary to our door in Austalia, Clayton Wesley Lank. My parents were very unhappy at the thought of me joining the Mormon Church and as I needed their signature (being under 21) it was not until I was almost that age before I was baptised. We were married first in the local chapel in Vancouver and later travelled to Salt Lake City to be married in the Temple there.

We returned to Australia, one daughter having been born in South Burnaby, British Columbia, before we left in 1956. Another daughter and three sons were also born to this marriage which unhappily proved to be a sad one almost from the beginning and finally came to and end after 11 years.

In 1967 I took the children to visit their Canadian grandparents who lived by then in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. We also visited my brother and his family in Salt Lake City, travelling and visiting for a total of 9 months.

I later married a solicitor, Bruce David McKenzie whom I met after returning from Canada.(It was he who handled the divorce being then the Public Sol- icitor). Unfortunately after 4 months of marriage he found himself in severe financial difficulties. Eventually 6 months after the birth of a son, Richard Bruce, I had to return to work to help the financial situation. I began an Accounting Diploma (Bruce actually taught the law classes) but eventually had to abandon this when a change of job did not allow me the time needed to attend classes.

I also began classes in porcelain painting which has since proved one of my best ideas.

I have failed to mention so far my continuing interest in history. I have said that if there is such a thing as a born genealogist then I am one. Even as a small child I took an unusual interest in church yards and seemed to see those who had gone before as quite real people with a definite ongoing place in our lives. I knew by heart those who were in the church yard attached to my childhood church, St.Saviour's, Punchbowl. Later it was with great enthusiasm that a learned of the Mormon church's belief in the continuance of families and the importance of knowing who they were. Of course with such a large family all hope of spending large amounts of time research- ing were out of the question at least for the time being.

From about 1953 with help from my mother I began to piece together what I could. A trip to Europe and also Britain including a few places I then knew to be relevent helped to spur me on. Tragicly, only 10 months after we returned from this trip Bruce was killed in an accident on his way to work. Several months later I left my position with Constan in Castle Hill and began to seriously concentrate on improving my porcelain painting techniques.

In 1981 Vernon, Richard and myself visited Salt Lake City where I was able to do more research at the Library, as well as visit the family.

My continuing improvement in the art of Porcelain painting gave me eventually an income that has also allowed me to actively research the family tree. Since first writing the above I have gained a Diploma of Family Historical Studies (1988) and also visited S.L.C. again in 1989 with mother.

Written by Fay McKenzie-Edmonds June 1984.

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The following memoir penned by Mum was discovered and presented as found.

Date unknown.

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