| Notes |
- ....1994 Address:--22 Tyne St Gilberton 5081 South Australia 0061 88344 1978 ....Studio Portrait on file.........Snapshot Photograph on file....
As a child she often wrote in the chidrens section of the NZ Herald where Ann Shirley was the Childrens Editor
(Rae, MSc, educated NZ and Aust, writer and poet, publishes, occupations
include tutoring at migrant English and science, teaching at a girls school,
research at a University) (no children)
Born and educated in New Zealand, Rae Sexton's education was a broad one. She obtained her School Certificate in Drawing and Design, and passed Trinity College examinations in music. She gained a BA (majoring in English and French) and BSc in New Zealand before moving to Adelaide in 1961 and doing a MSc at the University of Adelaide. She worked as a tutor/researcher at the University of Adelaide, then taught at the Wilderness School. She married Robert Thomas Sexton in 1963. Sexton published various…
Most Referenced Works
1
Coping with Fall-Out Rae Sexton , Wollongong : Five Islands Press , 1995 selected work poetry
2
Smorgasbord for the 21st Century Rae Sexton , Henley Beach : Seaview Press , 2001 selected work poetry
3
Ming Dynasty Carp : 45 poems : some dry wit Rae Sexton , Adelaide : Rae Sexton , 1993 selected work poetry
4
The Biscuits Were Uncommonly Old! Rae Sexton , Gilberton : Rae Sexton , 1985 biography
This is an imaginative interpretation of the life of Private No. 3563 - one of Queen Victoria's soldiers in the colonies during the 1850-60s.
5
Down to the Sea : Semaphore poems & prints Rae Sexton , Renee Gaetjens (illustrator), Adelaide : Rae Sexton , 1996 selected work poetry
VIEW ALL WORKS BY (137)
Notes
Sexton had 3 or 4 poems published under another name once, but preferred not to identify them.
Affiliation Notes
Born elsewhere; moved to SA
Awards for Works
The Mo(u)rning Face in the Bathroom Mirror "You could bushwalk all over her face,", Friendly Street Poets no.22 , 1998 poetry
1997 commended Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival of Arts Awards — Award for Verse
Cooking the Tongue "It lies curled in its pot like a grey monster", Mattoid , no. 48 1994- poetry
1989 winner Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival of Arts Awards — Award for Verse — Contemporary
The deserters: A complete record of military and naval deserters in Australia and New Zealand, 1800-65 Unknown Binding – 1985
by Rae Sexton (Author)
Mirrors novella collection (Redress Press)
Coping with Fallout (Five Islands Press)
Fluorescent Voices: Friendly Street Poetry Reader 21 (Co-editor)
Also a writer of non-fiction
Armistice Day
red poppies gashed: these bloom
at the edge of the shopping centre
with a sudden splurt of red
something the weedkiller missed
a swift hurt on a grey day
an escape: beyond council workers
with deadly hose and ghoulish mask
Discovering some of Adelaide's trees with the National Trust / by Rae Sexton. 1975
SHIRLEY RAE SEXTON
10 August 1936 - 12 January 2006
We are here today to celebrate the life of Shirley Rae Sexton, who passed away last Thursday at the age of 69 years. Rae had many quiet achievements, and touched the lives of a wide range of friends with her humour and good sense.
She was the only child of Frank and Una Shanks, and was born at Otorohanga, in New Zealand's North Island, on the 10th of August, 1936. Frank and his brother Henry married Una and her sister Glad, and moved away from the family area north of Auckland to take up dairy farming together in the south. There were two cousins, and due to living on the same property and going to school together, Rae was thus very close to her cousin Valerie, who was just a few months older. This closeness has been all the more important during the last few years when it fell to Val to care for all four parents who had returned to the same town and lived well into their 90s.
When Rae reached university age, Frank retired to Auckland. Always the home handyman, he was seen working away and commenced a second career when offered a job as foreman carpenter by a neighbour who was a builder. Rae attended the University of New Zealand and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958. Although working in the university library during vacations, she decided to continue with a science degree, majoring in botany. She found that this still did not open up satisfying job opportunities, and in 1961 came to South Australia to take up a position as a demonstrator in the Biology Department of Adelaide University while undertaking a Master of Science in the cell growth of plants. This she completed in 1964. Oddly enough this was not the first family connection with South Australia. Her maternal great-grandfather Reyland was amongst a detachment of the 40th Somerset Regiment posted to Adelaide in 1857, and took his discharge in New Zealand (1866) at the end of the Maori Wars.
At first Rae resided at St Anne's College, then found private board. Soon after arrival she attended the ANZAAS Conference in Brisbane and made lasting friendships with others there. Another activity growing out of her early love of birdwatching was bushwalking. It was on a trip to the Renmark area with the Adelaide Bushwalkers that she met her future husband, but never shared his other enthusiasm of cave exploring. They were married on the 5th of January, 1963, in St Helier's, Auckland, just over the hill from her parents' home. Needless to say this had the Sexton family historian wondering in later years since he was unable to find local record of their marriage.
Their marriage just followed Bob's completion of studies and he had a sudden change of direction with a wife, a degree, and a new job with the Highways Department. For the first year they had a flat in the city, then looked after a house-and cats-for absent friends, winding up as a result with the first of a long line of kittens. They then purchased a house in Portrush Road, Evandale, and Rae set to with a will in helping take up ancient linos, and scrubbing off fifty years worth of kalsomine before painting the walls. More importantly, she now had the opportunity of developing and tending her own garden.
In 1966, Bob's work took him to Port Lincoln, and while there Rae fell victim to ovarian cancer. She beat this, but increasingly over the years encountered difficulties arising from radiotherapy damage. She met these health problems with a tremendous strength of mind, soon bouncing back with good cheer and optimism, and with never a complaint. Any occasional mention of pain in fact had to be taken with the utmost seriousness because it was so out of character.
Work of a regular character would be been almost impossible, but over the years she was employed for a time in cancer research at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and was a biology teacher at The Wilderness. If ever there was a hallmark of her character it was an insatiable curiosity and inquiring mind. These led to many different fields. Amongst her papers, for instance, is a certificate as a movie projectionist, she commenced a course on teaching English to migrants, and became involved with the Good Neighbour Council. While living in Angas Street they had joined the Citizens Art Group, now the Adelaide Art Society, and Rae was at one stage secretary as well as attending the regular painting evenings. With her house renovating skills, she was able to help when Bob supervised the addition of rooms at the back of the North Adelaide hall used by the group.
In 1969 Bob and Rae purchased the house in Tyne Street, Gilberton, but by this time fatigue had set in and they were content to have tradesmen do any necessary work of repair and rebuilding. This allowed Rae more time to pursue other activities, not only in the garden but in writing and art. With Bob, she wrote a chapter on Gawler for the National Trust's book on Historic Public Buildings of Australia (1971) and later contributed to The Australian Gardener, edited by Margaret Barrett. She also prepared a booklet on street trees for the National Trust (1975). The diversity in her writing is seen however in Before the Wind: the saga of the Star of Greece (1982), The Deserters (1983), and The Biscuits were Uncommonly Old (1985), which takes its name from the rations issued to the 40th Regiment.
Coping with Fallout was her poetry collection published by Five Islands Press in 1995, and Smorgasbord for the 21st Century another by Seaview Press in 2001. Further collections have been Summer's Night (1988), Ming Dynasty Carp (1993), and the final On Looking at 30-year-old Slides (2005). A highlight of her poetry writing has to be winning the Henry Lawson Festival Award at Grenfell in 1989. Over the years she has been very active in seeking outlets for publishing poetry, appearing regularly in anthologies of the Friendly Street Poets-on whose committee she served in several capacities including secretary-and in literary magazines. As a matter of fact a poem inspired by the photograph of the ninetieth birthday party of a friend in France appears in the current issue of the New England Review. Another venture was Down to the Sea: Semaphore poems & prints (1996), with Renee Gaetjens, while her association with other writers is indicated by her editing three anthologies of short stories for the Sunday Prose Group, which met at the Writer's Centre; and Humour on the Line, a collection of limericks for the South Australian Society of Women Writers. As a further indication of her spread of interests, she has also been involved with the Poet's Union, and held membership of the Royal Society of Arts, the Contemporary Arts Society, and the Adelaide Potters. She also played croquet at North Adelaide with the Fitzroy Club.
Rae learnt to play the piano from an early age, so music has been an abiding interest jointly shared by Bob, who was a remarkably undistinguished flautist.
Despite health problems they were able to travel to Europe in 1973 and 1977, touring the first time by camping van which enabled them to see more of the countryside off the beaten track, and on the second by rail and bus, much more convenient when visiting cities and towns. Eventually problems with digestion led to Rae going onto artificial feeding just short of twelve years ago. She received the solutions overnight, but in no way did this interfere with her mind, let alone mowing the lawn for exercise or using up a can of paint around the house. Deterioration of her right hip joint put an end to climbing ladders to paint the gutters, but painting with pastels formed a more sedate alternative. A new attack of cancer in the middle of last year reduced mobility yet further, and in early December it was recommended that she go into the Mary Potter Hospice. Here she received every attention from truly dedicated staff with the aim of making her comfortable, and we can be glad for her sake that she drifted off peacefully last Thursday.
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1936 - 2006 (69 years)
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