Yvonne Turner turned 100 last month, and while it is customary for a letter from the King, she was very excited to get her letter from Flinders MP Sam Telfer.
Sitting in her living room, with a book beside her and a carer bustling to make scones in the kitchen, Mrs Turner has touches of Port Adelaide Football Club tastefully placed around the home so you can be quite sure who she barracks for.
A wall is covered with strung up cards from friends and family congratulating and celebrating her century of life.
“All along they said about the letter from the King and I said I’m waiting for one from Sam,” she smiled.
“Some letters came along and still none from Sam, and anyway the letter had dropped behind something, so it was well and truly sent early, so I was excited, I had to put Sam out the front.”
Cards sit displayed on a table in the corner of Mrs Turner’s living room as well, and sure enough, pride of place – in front of the King’s letter and the Prime Minister’s letter, is a signed note from Sam Telfer.
“I think coming from a place like Ungarra, a country town, I think he’s done really well for our area here,” she said.
“Quite often you’d go down the street and he’d be outside of Neindorf’s chatting to anyone that came along, he was just so natural and friendly.”
Mrs Turner, who turned 100 on August 20, was born in Tumby Bay and the eldest of five, living on a farm in Yeelanna growing up.
During World War II she stayed with her aunt and helped with her children while her uncle was posted away.
“I came over and worked for Elder’s Smiths and was the first female to work for a stock firm on Eyre Peninsula,” she said.
“It was all male oriented in those days, and then as the boys gradually went to war and enlisted they were looking for girls to take over, so I was here for three years and then my mum took ill and was sent to Adelaide and was there for 12 months.
“I must have been 18-19 I think, it wasn’t fair for me to go and work in the city so my sister and I took turns to help look after our siblings, we took turns going to and from Adelaide.”
When Mrs Turner’s mother passed away, she assisted family in Adelaide who had been helping her and her sister with accommodations while her mother was ill.
“So I spent time in Adelaide, I remember dancing in the street in Adelaide about when the war finished,” she recalled.
“When I married we had a farm between here and Yeelanna, the boys went to school in Karkoo and then to Cummins.”
Mrs Turner’s husband Bill’s mother then fell ill. The Turners bought a house in Tumby Bay so she did not have to travel as far to look after her mother-in-law.
“I did that until Matthew Flinders opened and she was one of the first to go there,” Mrs Turner said.
“Then I got involved in the women’s agriculture bureau and church activities, because that’s how I was.
“It was interesting years – I had four boys, Dennis is the eldest, Ron works for Quinn’s Transport, Alan is in Lincoln and David, he’s married and they live in Darwin.”
On her 80th birthday, son David sent Mrs Turner on a trip to Ireland and she has been back three times since with fond memories of singing at Galway Bay.
Mrs Turner was married to Bill for 50 years before he eventually moved into Matthew Flinders.
“I used to go in the morning and stay there all day, and as soon as I got there he’d go to sleep,” she laughed.
“He used to look and see me coming and say, ‘here she comes I can see her scruffy hair’.”
Mrs Turner remarried a long-time friend Laurence Curtis, and they were together for six years before he also passed away.
“It was a good friendship really, he was an unusual fella in lots of ways but he was always bright and chirpy and we travelled around quite a bit,” she smiled.
Mrs Turner said being the eldest meant she was not easily pushed around, so with four boys close together, she was well prepared for motherhood.
Luckily for her, eldest son Dennis also supports Port Adelaide.
“I love my football, well I have four sons and a husband and a brother all played football so I didn’t get much chance to play netball,” she said.
“I like Butters and Rozee, I like Rioli, I like quite a lot of them. And I like Hinkley, I think he’s done quite well.
“I know what the boys are going to say when they see my Port Power colours.”
Mrs Turner did even try to jokingly convince her grandson to do his boat in Port colours, but she had to be happy enough with its name – Lady Yvonne.
She remains engaged with what she loves – family, friends, football, walking and reading – and is grateful to Tumby Bay School Community Library staff for always choosing good book selections for her.
