‘Limitless beauty’ of a city treasure
THE Gold Coast’s first Meter Maid was a woman of “limitless beauty” who loved family, golf, partying and – at times – “bathed in champagne”.
In a fittingly colourful funeral yesterday the “effervescent, vivacious” Annette Bryant – as Surfers Paradise identity Billy James called her – was laid to rest with a big pink ribbon atop her white coffin.
Many attendees wore the colour in a nod to the 75-yearold’s travelling Pink Lady golf group which she started and led on “adventures”.
Son Mark Bryant, in a eulogy to “a woman of limitless beauty”, said: “She was my mother, devoted wife to my father Doug, sister to Barbie, surrogate mother to many.
“She was the first Meter Maid, she was a model, she was the Pink Lady … she was always the life of the party,” Mr Bryant said. “She bathed in champagne regularly and she partied as hard as anyone.
“She was giving, caring, loving, considerate and thoughtful. She could be blunt, hilarious, intelligent, cunning and wily. In general she was a wonderful human being.”
Good friend and Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser delivered a scripture reading at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church service, down the road from Surfers Paradise Golf Club where the Bryants were founding members. The wake was held there after.
Along with her funloving nature, she and Doug – married in 1966 – were heavily involved in community groups. They were founding members of the Surfers RSL, its Surf Lifesaving Club and Lions.
Mr James said the couple were considered “GC royalty” and their Sunrise Boulevard home looking north towards Tiki Village was “The Palace”.
Mr Bryant was a “gun” real estate agent and Mr James said the pair played a key role in marketing the Coast and driving significant property investment flows from the 1960s on.
She was the city’s first Meter Maid, stepping out in 1964 wearing a two-piece swimsuit and golden tiara to feed parking metres of visiting interstate cars.
Mr James recalled her saying at her husband’s funeral in the 2000s it was “a real GC story ... of the ’50s through ’70s when we had a lot of crazy unforgettable characters who helped build the town into what it is today”.