Nora a loved aunt, speech teacher

More than 500 Southlanders, young and not-so, were taught to speak eloquently by former broadcaster Nora Brophy, who took her first pupils when she was 19 and proceeded to teach for the next 55 years.

Many of her earlier pupils went on to qualify as speech teachers themselves.

Others followed her career into broadcasting as programme directors, announcers, radio hosts, or station managers.

Others still used their publicspeaking training for political life, with success.

Nora Brophy had a great and good influence in the lives of those she taught, retaining friendships with many over her lifetime.

She passed away as quietly as she’d lived, on October 12 at the age of 84.

The younger daughter of Thomas and Mary Brophy, Nora was born in Queenstown where her father was the post master in 1932.

The tuberculosis that caused her father’s death four years later affected her spine and growth.

But her small stature was the least important thing about Nora Brophy.

She was quiet and gentle but had a great presence.

After primary school at St Theresa’s in north Invercargill she followed in the footsteps of her older sister Margaret and became dux of St Catherine’s College.

She joined broadcasting in Invercargill, home of stations 4YZ and 4ZA; the first: national radio, the second: local and commercial.

Joining the programming department, she wrote scripts to be read, chose music to be played and proved an adept programme planner with a near encyclopedic knowledge of music of all genres.

Meanwhile, her sister Margaret had married electrician Des Hishon and as their family, ten in all, arrived, Nora became the devoted aunt.

Never was there a better aunt and never more devoted nieces and nephews.

Nora loved them as her own and spent a great deal of time with them.

She also spent time with friends of her own age. Rona from radio with whom she went to the Pacific Islands, fellow speech teacher Penelope Henstock at whose Christchurch home she holidayed in recent years and the late Shirley Bradshaw with whom she visited the newly opened Globe Theatre in London.

Nora was a Shakespeare fan who loved all theatre.

She was a valued member of the Southland Women’s Club and the Dominican Ex-pupils’ Association.

When she retired from radio she was engaged by St Mary’s Basilica parish priest Father John as the diocese’s first lay pastoral co-ordinator with responsibility for liturgy which, with its blend of music and words, was a perfect fit.

Father Christopher O’Neill, speaking at her requiem mass at the Basilica on Monday, said Nora Brophy’s contribution to parish life was immense.

Her nieces and nephews, the children of her late sister Margaret, spoke of their aunt’s involvement in their lives and in the life of their late parents.

‘‘She made each of us feel so special, the favourite,’’ they remembered, smiling.

And the same love and loyalty and care went to their 33 children, Nora’s great-nieces and nephews, and to the 14 infants, her greatgreat-nieces and nephews.

Nora is survived by the Hishon family whose beloved aunt she has been:

John and Sue Hishon, AnneMarie and John Beaufill, Barbara and Gus Johnston, Jayne and Patrick McGrath, Leonie Grace and Jim Dawson, Clare and Sabin Kirkland, Beth Hishon, Des and Tori Hishon, Bridget and Richard Bekhuis, Gerard Hishon. All but Des and Tory Hishon of the UK, live in Southland.