Rae Hussey

Vale: Rae HUSSEY (1910-2011)

 W.A.B.C.'s oldest life member, Rae Hussey, who passed away earlier this year, was a tireless worker for the Club and the game she loved. Rae and her husband Frank, who was the first president of WABC in the mid 1970's when the formation of BAWA occurred, were great mentors for new club members.

Rae's early life centred around nursing in Perth and in Sydney from where she joined The Australian Army Nursing Service in 1940. She served in Egypt, Palestine, Burma and New Guinea. At one time she had 120 Kokoda Track patients in her ward, with one orderly and three nurses to care for them. By the time she was eventually discharged in 1946, she had served 2009 days with the army - almost half of which was overseas service.

After the war Rae married Frank in England before moving back to Australia for Frank's continuing army duties in Melbourne and Sydney. On Frank's retirement from the army in 1961 they moved to Kununurra where he was overseeing the construction of the Ord River Diversion Dam. Whilst in the Kimberley, Rae developed an interest in polishing semi-precious stones, doing this with the diligence and skill that she always brought to her many hobbies.

In her retirement years with Frank she lived a full life playing and teaching competition bridge, pursuing her interests in pottery, painting and poetry and taking an active intellectual interest in a broad range of subjects as she always had. Rae and Frank also travelled venturing beyond the usual tourist trails of their day to China, Japan and other exotic locations.

Frank died in 1985 and judging by Rae's poetry of the time she was devastated by the loss of her loving and loved life partner. She had to begin a new phase in her life and, as she wrote, "find a new me". For those of us who knew the woman she became in her later life, she managed this remarkably well and lived impressively.

Her enthusiasm for life and positive attitude lasted for a hundred years, and that's impressive.

P.S. Have you ever ridden on the railway train at Rottnest?? Its name is The Frank Hussey!! Frank was the chief engineer When the island's World War Two gun emplacements were installed.

Helen and Michael George

Published in Winter 2011 Edition of Trumps Plus