Family loses its ‘bedrock’
Ex-MP recalls wife’s sacrifices
PROMINENT Far Northerner Yvonne DeLacy has died in hospital after a short battle with pneumonia.
The 74-year-old wife of former Queensland treasurer and Cairns MP Keith DeLacy was born in Innisfail, where the couple were married in 1962.
She had Mr DeLacy’s heart from that day forward and in 2014 she also received his kidney in a successful transplant.
“She had four good years after that,” Mr DeLacy said.
“Of course, the reduced immunity from having a kidney transplant made it difficult for her to deal with this illness. “But it was peaceful.” An 18-year-old Yvonne Jarrett married Keith DeLacy when he was a young tobacco farmer at Dimbulah.
They had a two-day honeymoon and then it was back to work on the farm with Mrs DeLacy cooking for eight seasonal workers using a wood stove and a kerosene fridge.
“We’ve travelled many paths in our life,” Mr DeLacy explained.
Family friend and Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chairman Clive Skarott said Mrs DeLacy was steadfast when her husband started a venture as an underground miner and when they moved to Papua New Guinea and had their daughters.
“Keith has always been deeply attached to Yvonne and will miss her terribly,” he said.
“Back in those young days when he was out with pick and shovel doing tin mining, Yvonne lived in the bush camp and supported him.
“When Keith went up to Port Moresby, she kept the fires burning while he worked.”
The couple ran the Railway Newsagency in McLeod St for about five years before Mr DeLacy entered state politics, rising through the ranks to become treasurer.
“She was a lovely person, a great wife and mother and allround supporter of Keith and all of his endeavours,” Mr Skarott said.
“She kept him thinking straight – she was like his handbrake at times, and we all need that.”
Mr DeLacy said his wife was the bedrock of their family.
“Yvonne was always homemaker,” he said.
“She never carved out her own career so she could support everyone else.
“That’s not just me, that is our three daughters as well.”
The couple sold their home in Cairns and moved into an inner-city Brisbane apartment in August last year.
Mrs DeLacy died at the Mater Private Hospital in Brisbane on Wednesday.
She is survived by her husband, three daughters and five grandchildren.
A small private cremation service will be held in Brisbane.
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