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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-11 Daily Xml
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GALLNOR, MARY

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:23): I rise today to pay tribute to the late Mary Gallnor. Mary passed away on 19 July this year. The celebration of her life was held on 4 August 2013, which would have been her 80th birthday. It was a privilege to know and work with Mary, originally when she was a Liberal branch member in the electorate of Florey and, of course, through our common interest in voluntary euthanasia and on many other social issues that members of parliament deal with. There were a number of issues upon which we did not agree, but we always held a high regard for each other. Indeed, it was Mary Gallnor who referred Kerry Faggoter to me in relation to the need to change the laws in this state regarding altruistic gestational surrogacy.

Mary was born in Stockton-on-Tees in the north of England to Catherine and John Gallagher. After school Mary trained as a teacher, graduating in July 1953 from St Mary's Training College in Newcastle. She met her future husband Terry Cannon at school, but not long after they decided to marry Terry went off to war in Malaya. They married in 1959 and had two daughters, Alexandrea and Joanne. They moved to Nottingham and then in 1968 the young family along with her mother-in-law moved to Australia.

Mary continued to work as a teacher including new teaching methods at Strathmont Primary School. Later she was appointed head of the middle school of Scotch College and head of year 7 at Pembroke. Mary developed a keen interest in the areas of politics, justice and feminism. In her local area in the north-eastern suburbs she served for three years on the Tea Tree Gully Development Board.

After joining the Liberal Party in 1981 she served on State Council and as vice president of the Liberal Women's Network and as delegate for the Liberal Party Policy Committee. With her views as a social reformer, many of her friends and colleagues thought she may have been better suited to the other side of politics. In 1989 she became one of the founding members of the South Australian Voluntary Euthanasia Society (SAVES). She went on to serve as president of SAVES for eight years. Her energy and activism also saw her elected to become the president of the World Federation of the Right to Die Societies.

In 2007, she moved from the family home in Modbury to her unit at Kensington Gardens which she loved and of which she was very proud. In her later years Mary volunteered at Resthaven Nursing Home, giving hand massages and a friendly ear to older residents. In late 2012, she had an emergency hernia operation. Mary suffered from myelofibrosis, a condition which resulted in too many abnormal blood cells, a situation that also made surgery more complicated and recovery more difficult.

In early 2013, while reluctant to leave her beloved unit, she moved to St Louis Nursing Home at Parkside. She spent her final months with the care, support and friendship of the wonderful people at St Louis Nursing Home. She died unexpectedly but peacefully in her sleep. Her final wish to donate her body to medical science was fulfilled, but her quest to secure the legal right to die with dignity was not completed.

At the celebration of her life it was instructive to see that there were members of pretty well all political persuasions present, including the member for Unley in another place and members of this place, including the Hons Gail Gago, Ian Hunter and Mark Parnell. One of the speakers during that celebration was our former colleague, the Hon. Sandra Kanck.

Certainly, as I have said, while there are some things that I agreed with Mary on, there were others that I did not, and I think many other members of this place could attest to that. However, she always had great respect for members of parliament and those who serve their community and, even if she did not agree with you, she still had great respect for most people in this place. Vale, Mary Gallnor.

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