Saturday, April 3, 2010

Lady Sonia McMahon has died, age 77

Lady Sonia McMahon, widow of former Australian prime minister Sir William McMahon, has died at the age of 77.

Lady McMahon died in Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital last night after suffering cancer for some time.

She had been readmitted to hospital last month suffering from fluid in her lungs.
Born Sonia Hopkins in Sydney in 1932, Lady McMahon worked as an occupational therapist and married Billy McMahon - 24 years her senior - in 1965.

More at ABC News, and more at NineMSN News.

The Australian Gallery - Sonia McMahon.

Many, many years ago I attended a party at Rhodes in Sydney and met Sir William McMahon. One of his children was at the party, a little boy. Who knew he'd grow up to be the stunningly handsome Julian* of Nip-Tuck! Sir William was a lovely man, a gentleman. I was about 17 or so at the time. I'm sure it was a Young Liberals' function.

Update:
Lady McMahon's children were with her when she passed away.

*About Julian... who knows? There's been rumours about his Dad.... and that's a whole different story.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never met them but from what I could gather they both were lovely people.

He was an accidental politician,
probably too gentle to be one really.

There's been rumours about his Dad
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
There is only one parent you can be sure of kae, and sometimes not even that! I actually have an example close to me.
Neither of the women will tell him who the mother is.
Poor bugger, sometimes we tease him like "you had two mothers and neither of them taught you manners"!

LouMac

Wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

A gracious lady who is remembered for her split skirt and nice legs,on the steps of the White House. Sending the paparrazi into a tizz. It did not hurt our relations with America one bit. History will treat her kindly.

kae said...

Lou
The rumours were not about who Julian's father was.

kae said...

Wayne
I think she looked marvellous for her age, though I did see some footage which looked like she may have had a bit of a facelift at some stage, but it wasn't soo tight her navel was a dimple in her chin...

Anonymous said...

kae, you intrigue me, tell more!
LouMac

kae said...

Not on the blog, Lou.

kae said...

LouMac
Call me chicken.
http://iainhall.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/lady-sonia-mcmahon-is-dead-but-was-she-a-lady-or-a-tramp/

Anonymous said...

Thanks

Tongues will wag, and there is always talk when the age difference is greater than 10 years or the difference in social status comes into it.

I take it with a pinch of salt.
True or not, she turned out OK later in life, good for her.

What you up to during Eastern?

LouMac

kae said...

Socky's post appeared after mine, and a chap where I worked at one time told me a similar story.
It was unseemly that Billy would be PM and, at his age, be single.

There were rumours.

I am not troubled by the rumours. It's history.

kae said...

Not doing much over Easter. There's so much I need to do and I just don't have the energy. I'll have to get up early tomorrow and clean out the gutters before it gets hot and humid, then I'll probably do a bit of whipper snippering. Then I need to clean up inside the house.

Arrgh!

I need a maid... and a gardener.

I knew one of them once, but he wasn't interested.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't sound like fun to me.

I saw a gadget once somewhere, to clean the gutter from the ground.
It was a hooked thingy on a long handle with a jet on the end and it used water to blast the stuff out of the gutter, made a mess but you did not have to get up the ladder.

I don't mind doing gardening, but cleaning or more precisely, tidying up inside is not my strong point.
But then again, nobody to chastise me for it either, so it works out OK.

I just cleaned up my second desk a couple days ago because I needed some space to fix my laptop, and it looks like before already, proving that any empty space will be filled up as soon as it's created.

Take it easy and have nice break, short as it may be.

LouMac

kae said...

Lou
My house is 26m long, so I have that much x 2 (almost) of gutter to clean out, and it's been ages.... it's up the ladder or figure out how to get the mower up there! My brother suggests I get the Karcher and get on the roof, but looking over the edge my vertigo wil kick in and... well, that won't work. And it's only a ground floor dwelling on a slab!

Sounds like you have what my family has... we call it "Flat Surface Disease". In the house any flat surface will attract "stuff", particularly on the kitchen bench, where the family congregates.

Mum's mum was a bit of a hoarder, we called it "depression syndrome", from the Great Depression. Nanna used to save EVERYTHING. Brown paper, bits of string, balls of elastic bands, balls of silver paper. But we've figured out it skips a generation, it's skipped Nanna's kids, but has re-manifested itself in me (and my brother), not sure of the cousins...

kae said...

Anyway, I only have to please me so it's no biggie that the house looks like it's been done over by burglers... twice.

Merilyn said...

Met Sir William McMahon, at a function I attended with my Dad [standing in for my Mum who was ill at the time], he was very quite and most polite.
The story I heard, was that to get on in Politiacal life he would be advised to have a wife. That doesn't seem to be such a big thing these days, he married a very beautiful lady and they were happy together and that's the main thing.

Have a safe and happy Easter kae and above all enjoy being with your doggies, they are more fun then any housework.

stackja1945 said...

kae, Sydney charities adored her, the rest is nothing. Funny how only Liberals attract gossip while Labor attracts gossipmongers. Each Labor politician seems to have things we are left to wonder about. Keating, Richo, Hawke, Brown, Dunstan…

kae said...

Stacks

Sonia McMahon will be remembered for her good and charitable works.

Anything else is of no importance.

As I said earlier, I'm not troubled by the rumours.

stackja1945 said...

Kae, no offense to you ever intended at anytime on any topic.

kae said...

Hi Stacks
No offence taken.
Like I said, the rumours are rumours, and really, honestly, does it matter to us outsiders?

stackja1945 said...

Kae, does it matter to us outsiders?
No!