LAST OF HER GENERATION: Clarice Woods, pictured here in the 1930s, passed away in July
THE death at the age of 99 of Clarice Woods in July saw the passing of the last of the six children of former Moree Mayor and Councillor Andrew Percival (Percy) Mellor and his wife Winifred Maude Mellor.
Clarice was their second child; Lesley and Clarice were born in Parkes, while Marjory, Allan, Dorothy and Norma were born in Moree, where they all grew up.
The growing family lived behind various shops in Balo Street. There were once several shop façades bearing the Mellor name, as A P Mellor’s businesses grew in the town. He designed and built the family’s stylish Californian bungalow home in Auburn Street, completed in 1922. He made the concrete bricks himself, and added many wonderful art deco features, stained glass windows and front door, built in fitted cupboards and robes complete with interesting furniture and glorious fabrics used for curtains and matching tailored bed covers.
Clarice would have been seven years old when the family moved into their splendid new home and she regarded that house as ‘home’ for the whole time her parents lived there. The house was the centre of social activity, especially during WWII when young British soldiers and merchant seamen were hosted by the Mellor family. It saw a constant round of tennis, picnic races and musical evenings. A P Mellor was a councillor and several times mayor of Moree.
He became a leading member of the local Country Party at a time when all government attention seemed to be focused on city dwellers and city developments. All the Mellor children had music lessons and several proved to be quite talented.
Clarice was an accomplished pianist who accompanied singers in Sydney and also played the organ at her church in Thornleigh. Her brother Allan was a versatile pianist too. He played classical and jazz piano and was well known playing for the Jack Cavanagh Band in the 1960s and 1970s.
Allan was the organist for St Andrews Presbyterian Church for many years until he moved to Brisbane, where he played the organ for the Anglican Church at Toowong. Marjory was a gifted violinist and had considerable talent as a writer.
She read her stories, There were once several shop façades bearing the Mellor name, as A P Mellor’s businesses grew in the town. ‘‘entertaining memoirs and travel tales, on ABC radio in the 1950s. In 1939 Clarice married John Woods, who came from Queensland. He was then required for war service and joined the RAAF. After the war they made their home in Sydney.
Their two daughters, Winifred and Helen, grew up in Pennant Hills, where John began a small real estate business, after retiring from the civil service. Later Clarice and John moved to Turramurra, where he died in 1996 at 87 years of age.
The Mellor family made many contributions to Moree in their lifetime. While all the children of Andrew Percival and Winifred Maude have now passed on there are still grandchildren and greatgrandchildren living in the town or the area.