Beatrice Mary (Betty) Howard

March 28, 1913 – May 14, 2008

Betty was born on March 28, 1913, third and youngest child of Bert and Gladys Mudge then of Artarmon, a suburb of Sydney. She died in the Yass Hospital on May 14, 2008, aged 95. She is survived by her nephew Stewart Mudge his wife Peta and their children Phillip and Campbell. Stewart is the son of Bert Mudge, Junior, former co-owner with Betty of the Yass Tribune.

Betty's father Albert Peter Mudge (1876 - 1954), was known as Bert, as was his son (Stewart's father) who was christened Bert. Bert, Senior, was originally from the Albury district where after starting life in banking he soon became the youngest alderman elected to the Albury Council. His father Samuel Mudge had earlier been Albury Town Clerk. Bert then started a long career in newspapers, first as a journalist with the 'Corowa Free Press' and later with 'The Sydney Morning Herald', before graduating to newspaper proprietorship, initially the 'Inverell Argus' and then the 'Yass Evening Tribune' and the 'Yass Tribune' in 1927. Betty's mother, Gladys Ethel Johnson (1886 - 1978), originally from Elwood in Melbourne, was a trainee nurse at the Corowa Hospital when Bert met her. They married in Sydney at St John's Church, Darlinghurst on May 6, 1908. Bert was 32, 10 years older than Gladys.

They were to have three children, Bert Parmenas (1908 - 1992), Dorothy Mildred (1909 - 1997) and Beatrice Mary (Betty). Ink was in their veins, as all were involved at one time or another in newspapers.

Betty had her early education at Artarmon Public School and later at Inverell Grammar and Manly Grammar School for Girls. Because of the Depression she left school early at the Intermediate stage, but with the help of her former school Principal and later life-long friend, mentor and benefactor, Stella Inez Strachan, she studied by correspondence before and after work at 'The Yass Tribune-Courier' and she passed the Leaving Certificate in Yass.

Betty had an interesting time in journalism after she self-promoted herself through her writing endeavours to positions in 1935, initially on 'The Sydney Daily Telegraph' and then 'The Sydney Morning Herald'. In later years she also worked as a feature writer for 'The Women's Weekly' in Sydney and 'Woman's Day and Home' in Melbourne. Before her father died in 1954 she had already joined her brother, Bert, as a working proprietor of 'The Yass Tribune', until it was sold in 1973.

In St Clement's Church, Yass on February 25, 1939, Betty married a fellow journalist at the Herald, Kenneth Hutton Wilkinson (1903 - 1949). Ken was art, opera, drama, ballet and film critic for the Herald and wrote a weekly column 'Music and Drama', affectionately known as the "MAD" column, in each Saturday edition. He was the son of a renowned Daily Telegraph journalist and war correspondent, Frank Wilkinson. Ken started his working life as a cadet on the Herald, but gained a degree, rare for those times, a BA (Journalism). He was a well travelled and cultured man with many prominent friends in the world of the arts and music, both in Australia and overseas, including Yehudi Menuhin and his family, and as well as Arthur Murch, former war artist and 1949 Archibald prize winner. Ken's portrait was painted by him in 1943 and was entered in the Archibald, albeit unsuccessfully.

Ken and Betty developed a close relationship with their editor and employer, Alice Jackson, for whom they worked for several years during the 1940s, first when she was editor of 'The Women's' Weekly' and later 'Woman's Day & Home'. It was while Betty was on assignment for the latter in New Zealand in 1949, that she received an urgent call from Alice informing her that Ken was desperately ill. He had suffered a heart attack after a visit to the dentist. Betty just made it before he died. He was 46.

Eventually she returned to Sydney to 'The Sydney Morning Herald', but life was not the same without Ken and with her father's health also in decline she rejoined the 'Yass Tribune', this time as joint proprietor with her brother Bert, who was editor. She said she was an early exponent of '"multi-skilling". She did anything at the paper from serving in the office to writing up weddings and funerals. The editorials were Bert's domain.

Earlier, while in Sydney however, she had, as she expressed it, "a passionate affair", with a man she had met at her poet friend Nancy Keesing's home. This was William Spencer (Bill) Howard (1908 - 1979), whom she married in St Clement's on November 20, 1954.

Bill was the antithesis of Ken. He did not claim to rank high in the cultural stakes, but he was an entertaining man, a remarkable writer of short stories many of which were published in 'The Bulletin' and later in the 'Yass Tribune'. Bill had served in the Second World War and for a while afterwards, in the First Armoured Regiment AIF in New Guinea and Borneo. He was a corporal when demobbed. By profession he was a wool classer and he soon found wool-classing work around Yass after meeting Betty. Betty said he proved to be a larrikin and over time became increasingly unreliable, but she admitted he was a lot of fun and he made her laugh. They lived together in Highfield Lane, in a house which Betty built, but eventually they parted and Bill returned to Sydney. He died in 1979.

After the sale of the Tribune in 1973, Betty travelled a great deal, both within Australia and overseas. And she loved it. She also loved nothing better than her car and the open road. She owned a succession of cars throughout her adult life, starting with her first car "Toby the Gutless Wonder", a 1927 Hudson Essex Tourer coupe, in her early Herald days and culminating with her beloved "Vim", a white Holden Barina, which became somewhat battered through momentary lapses of concentration. Nevertheless, she always managed to pass her annual driving tests here in Yass, with flying colours until she decided to stop driving a couple of years ago.

While travelling, she wrote a column for her old paper with which we all can identify, "Getting Around with Betty Howard", which later covered her retirement years in Yass. Her entertaining jottings were about her life adventures; going here and there to various places and events, and about the people she met.

Betty was a lover. She was an enthusiast. She met people more than half way and they usually liked it. She outlived all her family contemporaries and many of her friends, but she leaves a marvellous legacy, the warm memories Yass people have of her.