Olive Gray passed away on October 15, 2021 in Conway, Arkansas, USA, at age 94.
Olive was born in Narrabri on March 8, 1927 to father Horace Henry James Carrington (1889—1967) and mother Olive May Barbara Foxe (1890—1963).
Olive was born into the family business, W. Foxe & Co, which opened in 1925 on the corner of Maitland and Dewhurst Streets.
She worked in the store as a teenager until she married at age 22.
When Olive was sixteen, she witnessed the grand, old Foxe & Co. building dramatically destroyed by fire in August 1942.
The building was replaced and reopened a year later.
Olive married Gordon George Gray, from “Glencoe” Wee Waa, on October 26, 1949, at St. Cyprians Presbyterian Church in Narrabri.
They enjoyed a long and happy marriage for over 50 years.
In retirement, they travelled the world together.
They lived in Fiji before moving to Fairfield Bay, Arkansas, USA, in 1990, where they owned and managed the local shopping mall.
Olive was an avid golfer playing regularly, well into her 80s.
Olive is survived by her two sons, Peter Carrington Gray of Pine Mountain Club, California, and John Anthony Gordon Gray of Mayflower, Arkansas. Also, her two grandchildren, Olivia Jane Ravlin of Mayflower, Arkansas, and Ross Anthony Gordon Gray of Maumelle, Arkansas.
Her husband, Gordon, preceded her in death on August 22, 2002.
Also preceding her in death were brothers Henry James (Charlie) Carrington and William (Bill) Carrington, both from Tamworth, and her sisters Emmaline (Mem) Vidler, Amy (Mame) Betts, and Dorothy (Do) Rawlings, all from the Gold Coast in Australia.
After the loss of her husband, Olive moved to Mayflower, Arkansas, to be closer to her son, John’s family, and grandchildren.
During her golden years, she resided at the Brookdale assisted living facility in Conway, Arkansas.
She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Mayflower.
Olive Gray’s eulogy.
Olive Carrington was born in March 1927 in Narrabri, NSW.
In 1876, her maternal grandfather had jumped ship to marry a woman with whom he had fallen in love.
He changed his name from Bussell to Foxe to conceal his desertion from the British Navy.
His side of the family can be traced back to an ancestor, Robert
Bussell, in thirteenth-century England during the reign of King Henry III.
The Carrington bloodline can be traced back to knights during the Crusades.
Generations of Foxes and Carringtons ran a succession of general stores in Narrabri.
Olive was born into the family business, W. Foxe & Co, which opened in 1925, two years before she was born.
As a young teenager, Olive worked as a cashier in the store and was remarkably quick and efficient at counting out change in pounds, shillings, and pence.
Her father invited the bank manager to witness her skills, and he was suitably impressed.
When Olive was sixteen, the grand, old Foxe & Co. building in the main street of Narrabri was dramatically destroyed by fire in August 1942.
Olive and her sisters, Amy and Dorothy, had just returned home on holidays from Brighton College, a boarding school in Sydney.
They had arrived by train very early that fateful morning.
A few hours after their arrival, they witnessed the fire engulfing the family department store.
Foxe & Co was down, but not out.
The business moved to temporary premises while a new brick building was constructed on the original site.
As soon as Olive finished high school, she worked full time at the temporarily relocated store performing general office duties.
She was sent to Sydney to attend Chartres Business College, where she learned to use an accounting machine, a typewriter-like device that automated the process of billing customers.
The newly-built Foxe & Co building was completed in a year and reopened in August 1943.
When shoppers made a purchase in the new store, the cash for payment was placed in an overhead shuttle.
By pulling a string, it snapped a strong spring that sent the “cash carrier” flying along a taut wire to the cashier’s office upstairs.
There, Olive would send back the correct change at lightning speed.
One day, Olive opened the cash shuttle to find newly-born mice inside.
Her great uncle, Bill Foxe, was a prankster and thought stunts like this were amusing.
Olive met her future husband on the tennis court, a sheep grazier who was a third-generation descendent of early pioneers in the area.
After a year-long engagement, Olive married Gordon George Gray in St. Cyprians Presbyterian Church in Narrabri on October 26, 1949.
They enjoyed a long and happy marriage for more than 50 years.
The couple had two sons, Peter in 1951 and John in 1955, both born in the Narrabri hospital where Olive had worked as a volunteer nurse’s assistant during the war.
Husband, Gordon, was allergic to many things he came in daily contact with, including the wheat he grew, the horses he rode, the sheep he raised, and the grasses the animals ate.
There were even occasions where his allergy to horses caused him to pass out and fall off.
So the family decided to sell the property to an American immigrant (Paul Kahl) who wanted to try growing cotton.
His venture succeeded, and now the area is the cotton-growing capital of Australia.
In August 1961, the family moved from their ancestral home to the Gold Coast in Queensland.
With a sub-tropical climate, Gordon’s health improved dramatically, virtually overnight.
They ventured into the accommodation business, buying a motel near the beach and later building two successful motels from the ground up.
A couple of decades later, in semi-retirement, they bought a house in tropical Fiji.
Each year, they travelled extensively to different parts of the world using time-share accommodation for extended stays at their favourite destinations.
When a time-share unit they had booked on Vancouver Island in Canada fell through at the last minute, they were offered alternative accommodation on the golf course in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas in the USA.
This destination struck a chord for them.
They bought a condo and returned year after year.
When the local shopping mall came on the market, they purchased the business and began living year-round in Fairfield Bay.
They eventually sold the mall and retired to a house on the golf course in Maumelle, Arkansas.
Olive was an avid golfer playing several days a week well into her 80s.
Her residences were never far from a golf course, even on their vacations.
Tragically, Gordon died in 2002 from anaphylactic shock after being attacked by swarming Argentinean fire ants while mowing the front lawn.
After this, Olive moved to Mayflower, Arkansas, to be closer to her son, John’s family, and grandchildren.
During her golden years, she resided at the Brookdale assisted living facility in Conway, Arkansas.
A life well lived and lived to the full.
W Foxe & Co Pty. Ltd. store was on the corner of Maitland and Dewhurst Streets.
