Family, friends and members of Baan Baa, Boggabri, Narrabri and Tamworth communities were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Vida (Marnie) Elaine Eather, beloved wife of Richard (Dick) Eather (deceased), mother of Steve and Berice Eather and Lucy and Mick Simpson on Thursday, May 29, 2025, aged 95 years.
Steve Eather delivered a heartfelt eulogy on behalf of the family during the service at St John’s Anglican Church in Tamworth.
Mum to Lucy and me, Vida to many and Marnie to grandchildren and great-grandchildren and many kids who mum looked after at Boggabri Pony Club, as matron to the girls.
Vida was born in Barraba Hospital to Elise and Keith Halloran on September 29,1929. She was the seventh of their twelve children.
Alma, Joyce, Middy, Lyle, Gwen and Iris, arrived before mum and then Linda, Maurice, Geoff, Foddy and Clare.
Only sister Clare survives of the siblings and sister-in-law Maureen and brother-in-law Bill Church and Dad’s brother Harry and sister-in-law Olive on Dad’s side.
The Halloran family lived at the property, Kantara up the Horton River from Upper Horton.
Vida had a great life, especially playing in the cubby on the bank of the Horton River, that her father built.
The kids shared beds toe to toe on the verandah and when she started school at eight-years -old, they rode four on a horse or on bikes and met up with neighbouring kids on the way.
She boasted to the teacher that she could count to 100 by 1s, 2s, 5s and10s, and could spell Lactogen (her mother had Lactogen tins all along the shelves with other items in them) plenty of tins with so many young children.
For high school, Vida moved into Barraba and boarded with her eldest sister Alma and her family.
Vida left school at 15 and her first job was with the PMG department, delivering telegrams – not such a nice job at the time, as it was war years, many sad telegrams to deliver.
After 12 months she passed an exam to become a telephonist, at the Barraba exchange.
A job she kept until she married. Then later in the Boggabri telephone exchange.
Vida’s sister Biddy arranged for her to meet the new teacher at Brigalows, who of course was Dick.
They were married at St Lawrence’s Anglican Church in Barraba on October 1, 1949 and honeymooned in Dick’s Willy jeep with a borrowed caravan, to Port Macquarie, and by that time Dick had decided that he would rather farm, so left teaching and they moved to the property ‘Bollol’, just over the hill from Baan Baa.
The house they moved into was the shearers’ quarters, but they soon added rooms and made it into a home, a home they lived in for 62 years.
They played tennis around the district at various friends’ courts, Hudsons, Richards, Maunders, Whans, Lathams and their own courts.
Steve said: “As well as working with Dad and his brother Don as Eather Bros, later joined by younger brothers Peter and Harry, Mum helped with sheep work, making meals for shearers and lots of burr cutting, apart from regular home duties. Scones and meringues were specialities (she whipped them up in no time).”
Vida even drove the truck to Baan Baa delivering wheat to the silos.
One time she almost expired with heat exhaustion in the old Dodge truck.
Steve said: “I was born in 1951 and Mum wasn’t able to have any more children, so it was wonderful when we went to Sydney to pick up my new baby sister, Lucy, in September 1957.”
Vida was involved in many things in her life in the Baan Baa district and later Boggabri.
From St Clement’s Baan Baa, church going, Women’s Guild, which was fundraising, cleaning, minor paint jobs, and helping with Sunday school.
Later involved with St Barnabas’ Church Boggabri Guild and Op-Shop, travelled to Armidale for Synod with Dick and she and Berice helped with scripture classes at Baan Baa school.
She was in the Baan Baa Bush Fire Brigade, where she was the communications officer for many years, which entailed ringing around for volunteers for fires and working bees.
No mobile phones or CB radios then, CWA and one of the jobs was to feed all the fire fighters, usually in the Pilliga Forest.
Vida was also involved with the Baan Baa Hall helping with many dances, balls and in the early days Dramatic Society, playing many roles, of course, which she loved doing, as well as singing and dancing on stage.
Also helping with the Baan Baa Gymkhana, which was a fundraiser for the Baan Baa Hall and a great fun day.
As those who knew her would agree that she loved entertaining.
She appeared on the program ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on TV and although not a final winner, she did collect some prizes and showed off her entertaining skills.
Steve says: “Dad wasn’t that rapt when the show presenter asked Mum if she would like her father to join them on the set.”
Vida was also on the original committee to build the Glentarkie Retirement Village on the north side of Boggabri, which is now in the process of building more units.
In the seventies, Dick and Vida found golf in Boggabri and that love lasted until after they moved to Tamworth in 2011, cut short by a fall followed by a stroke.
Up until then Vida was playing three times a week.
A couple of Vida’s golfing friends visited her in the last days and there was a lot of cackling about her driving.
She always offered to drive to other venues – they feared for their lives – but always seemed to return okay, being entertained all the way there and back again.
At one stage Vida did a course in Tamworth, with Anglicare in marriage counselling.
She did quite a lot of counselling, till she had to give it up, as some of the cases played on her mind and she was unable to unload that information.
Vida had a love of horses.
In her late sixties and about the time she was Matron at the Pony Club, a job she loved and did for many years, purchased a pony, Flicker, who was very patient.
Vida would climb on the tailboard of Dick’s Subaru ute and Flicker would stand there patiently while Vida clambered up on her back and go for a ride.
Later she did a woodworking course at TAFE, where she made a set of steps to enable her to mount Flicker. She called them her highway to Heaven.
Everyone who knew Vida knew she loved to talk.
One trip, Dick bought Vida a toffee apple and she worked on it most of the trip.
Dick thought after that, he would get her a toffee apple for every trip, it was so peaceful.
One of Vida’s sayings was that whatever the ailment, be it headache or sore toe or anything in between ‘chocolate would fix it’.
The family remembers that Mum’s door was always open to visitors and regularly welcomed new arrivals to the Baan Baa district with a dinner party, or just a cuppa with a batch of scones or meringues.
This continued when they moved to Karwin Street in Tamworth.
She also hosted a kitchen tea for a young lady who was working in Boggabri in 1973, and about to marry a Boggabri local but didn’t have any family in town.
Hard work didn’t worry Vida, helping with harvest etc on the farm, cotton chipping with a team of golf club mates in her 60s and early seventies.
Vida was Mum to Berice and was there for her nearly as long as her own mother, as well as a great help with Steve and Berice’s boys and later some of their kids.
Vida and Dick joined Probus in Narrabri in later years and Vida regularly entertained on bus trips with many tales and poems. They also joined Tamworth when they moved there.
The family says, after 62 years at ‘Bollol’, Mum and Dad moved to Karwin Street, Tamworth and resided there until Mum decided that she was too much trouble for Dad to help her and booked herself into the Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution Cottage Homes almost five years ago, right in the thick of the COVID epidemic, which made it tough for all of us, trying to visit her. Dad joined her a year later.
Lucy added these comments about her Mum. “My Mum was the most loving person I have ever known.
“Mum always greeted us with a beautiful smile that would light up a room.
“She was welcoming to anyone she met and was always there for me and my family.
“She was always first to ask what the grandchildren were doing and was always overjoyed to hear of their successes.
“Mum was a beautiful soul who would welcome everyone with a soft heart and a listening ear without judgement, no matter the relationship.
“Mum, I want to thank you for ensuring my childhood was filled with love and laughter.
“The last couple of weeks has been so incredibly difficult, but I am at peace knowing you are back with your great love.
“Mum, know that I will always love you.”
Vida is survived by her sister Clare, children Steve and Berice Eather and Lucy and Mick Simpson.
Is the loved Marnie of Jimmy and Sandie, Will and Leah, Jono and Nikki, Craig and Diana, Amie, and Heath and Lisa, and great-grandmother Marnie of 15.
