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The master of obituary writing in
New Zealand is the Dominion-Post’s Peter Kitchin,
who goes to great lengths to research well-composed
obituaries of colorful, but frequently obscure,
local people. Lately, they have provided insights
into people who were controversial during their time
such as Bob Walton (police chief) and Charlie
Dempsey (soccer manager). There are also others who
are of less public exposure such as teachers who
have committed their lives to inspiring their
students, migrants who lived their lives with much
zest, a boot maker, a songwriter who wrote hits, a
market gardener, and a Maori kuia. |
Such obits are easily found on the Dominion-Post’s website,
and really contribute something significant to the paper
itself. The New Zealand Herald appears abashed by death, or
even celebrating life. You really have to hunt to locate
their obituaries. For example, who would dream of looking
for a story on Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the sports
section’s inside back-page? And they rarely feature New
Zealanders. The paper has selling rights to the obituaries
of the Independent, and although the offerings of that paper
are conspicuously used elsewhere in the Herald, some of the
resident writers likely feel that the obituaries are less
conspicuous.
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There was this feature on New Zealand’s version of
Marilyn Monroe. It is a flimsy association, but few
have ever heard of the Jill Adams, supposedly a
1950s bombshell, who grew up in New Zealand and
passed on recently at the age of 78. To all
accounts, she sounds like Diana Dors, only classier.
Her face was utilized on a Wrens recruiting poster
but she couldn’t seem to get out of low budget
movies.
But for victory over success, a good example is Joan
Campbell who had just recently died at age 96 and
was hailed “the gruff cookery writer who put
Australian food on the map.”
Her happy life as a debutante of Brisbane was
spoilt, when she was 20 years old, by the sudden
death of her first love in an accident caused by a
tractor’s crank handle. |
Campbell subsequently married the heir of a rich family, who
would not let her to do anything serviceable. According to
her friend, Cherry Ripe, a well-known food writer from
Australia, “She spent her days in a social round of polo
picnics, race meetings and beach houses.”
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By her mother-in-law’s orders, Joan was not
permitted in the kitchen. This led her to have a
sub-kitchen built at the back of the house, in which
she busied herself by making chutney and jams. When
her in-laws found out that she had purchased an Aga
cooker without asking their by-your-leave, they
purportedly deducted their son’s legacy by over
three thousand hectares.
The marriage didn’t last long, and Campbell said
goodbye to the heir and took up with a one-armed
journalist who was penniless. In the beginning, she
used a small amount of money from the family to
purchase two un-insured airplanes for crop-dusting
which unfortunately crashed. |
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At the age of 60, she successfully reinvented herself as a
stylist, food writer, and editor for women’s magazines.
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