December 20, 2013
Two special ladies got together recently at the Kingaroy RSL Club to remember 85 years of friendship.
Edna Grills celebrated her 92nd birthday on November 14 while Kathleen Burns turned 92 in August.
They met about age 7 when they sat side-by-side at St Mary’s School in Kingaroy, then under the control of the Sisters of Charity.
Their families both lived along the Kingaroy-Barkers Creek Road and they can still recall sharing the same sulky to school, which they would leave parked in a yard in Edward Street while they were in their classes.
Both did “Scholarship” at St Mary’s before going to Kingaroy State School for Junior High.
Their lives diverged for a time after they finished school.
Edna worked for a service station in Haly Street and then went to Sydney to work for the same company. She lived in Stanmore and then Summer Hill during World War II where she married before returning to the South Burnett.
All-in-all Edna worked from 1949 to 1984 … and amazing effort!
Even more surprising, in 1996, Edna took up a new interest … line-dancing. And she has been doing this at the CWA Hall right up until October this year when the classes stopped.
Meanwhile, when Kathleen left school she went to work in the office at Radio 4SB. She stayed for about three years until she married in 1942.
Edna was the bridesmaid at Kathleen’s wedding.
Most years the pair get together at birthdays and swap stories about their families.
Edna has two children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; Kath has seven children, 19 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
And between them they have more than 180 years of memories of Kingaroy …
PS. Kathleen Burns (nee Carew) is the daughter of local pioneer William Carew, who along with brothers Thomas and Michael settled in the Kingaroy area in the late 1890s. At the November meeting of the South Burnett Regional Council, councillors voted to undertake public consultation about renaming the park on the corner of Tessmanns Road and Doonkuna Street after the Carew brothers.
