This week’s Local Legend is a lady who is loved by many and who, with her husband, became household names around the state and federal electorates he represented. I say “they” because Alby Schultz always said of his wife Gloria and himself that the electorate and parliament got “two for the price of one”.
Gloria and Alby attended many functions in the district over the 26 years he held office. They would form an unparalled political partnership, generously giving of their time to electorates where they were very well respected and appreciated.
Gloria Betts was born in Echuca and was one of eleven children, being 4 boys and 7 girls in the family. Gloria said that she was no. 9 “the bottom of the barrel”. She said they lived in an old Cobb & Co Inn. With 13 in the family it would have been necessary to have such accommodation. She said they were all allocated jobs. She had the worst one, for a period of time, which was cleaning 11 pairs of shoes each day. She said, “ I was thrilled when I graduated to ironing the tunics for the 7 girls in the family.”
Gloria’s father, Jim, ran a trucking company while her mother worked in the office. Gloria remembers well, going to church all dressed up in finery in the back of dad’s stock truck.
She said the stock sale would have been the previous Friday and the condition of the truck was a bit doubtful. She said she often felt like a heifer, as she jumped off the back attempting to maintain some dignity.
She was fortunate to grow up in a loving family and looks back on those early days with fondness. One day her dad arrived home with a shy, skinny boy of 14, Alby Schultz. Dad had discovered him living under a bridge after the lad had found himself homeless. Alby’s dad had served in the armed forces during World War II and suffered from what we would today call PTSD. Alcohol and domestic violence became a part of their lives. Alby sustained injuries that required medical attention which was organised by Gloria’s dad. Alby’s father had been a beautiful man before the war, but he returned badly broken and was not the same man.
Alby was one of 9 and had done various little jobs to assist the family coffers. One such job was to sell papers from age 7. He did this outside a shop with a neon sign which gave the pennies a silvery glow, and this helped him to make a little more than he would have otherwise. The first time Gloria’s father invited Alby to their home was to have a meal with the family. They sat on stools around the table and after being asked to move up to make room for Alby, they sat down to eat. Alby was given a third roast potato. Gloria and her siblings were given 2 potatoes. Alby was then edged off the stool a number of times by the other children, before Gloria’s dad said that if Alby fell off again he would be given an even bigger slice of lemon meringue pie.
Alby became a bit of a fixture around the home after Gloria’s dad Jim found him a job in an abbatoir and somewhere to live. Gloria said, “I didn’t like him [Alby] much. He had taken two of my sisters out but I had said I would not be seen dead with him.” One day as Gloria was cutting kindling for the chip heater, (an awful lot of chips were necessary to heat water for baths), Alby sat on a log talkng to her. He said, “I didn’t realise that a family could be so happy until I came here.” Gloria said, “I began to look at him differently.” After completing her Leaving Certificate, Gloria moved to Melbourne to live with her sister. She said she had previously worked at the Blue Bird Café in Echuca and had been given the tins that chocolate was stored in after it had become discoloured. She decided to take a suitcase of these tins with her to the big smoke, much to the amusement of her sister.
Gloria said, “I worked as a dental nurse and did some part time modelling at Myers. I lived in a house with 26 other girls. Alby would come down to Melbourne on the weekends and take me out to lunch. He was a bit of a hit with the other 25 girls at the boarding house. By this time I didn’t think he was so bad. We became engaged and later married in 1962. I was just 21.” Their reception was held at their family home. Theirs was an enduring love story which would span 53 years. Gloria said, “We had booked our honeymoon to stay the first night at the Shamrock Hotel in Bendigo, but when we arrived we had been double booked. Alby ran from hotel to hotel attempting to secure a bed for the night. So much so, that the wax flower in his lapel managed to melt all over his suit. He eventually talked a little old lady into giving them a room in Kyneton. I had bought Alby pyjamas with blue birds all over them and I had bought pink ones with butterflys for myself. Matching bed socks completed these outfits. I thought they were beautiful.” Gloria went on to say, “I was mortified the next morning when the landlady brought in a parcel and announced to the breakfast diners whilst addressing Alby and me, ‘I don’t think you’ll need these for a while but you may in the future.’ The landlady’s neighbour had collected the above garments, which Alby had thrown out of the window during the night onto shrubs in her garden.”
Alby and Gloria went on to honeymoon in Melbourne. Alby had a job in Yanco and they took the train to Leeton where they lived. They had very little furniture and she remembers cooking vegetables in a Birko. On one occasion it exploded and the veges were soon dripping from the ceiling. They returned to Melbourne where Alby had a good job with Borthwicks. He decided to complete the education he had missed out on. Alby completed the equivalent of the Leaving Certificate at the age of 27 and then went on to study Time and Motion and a Diploma in Business Management whilst working a 60-70 hour working week. This was no easy task as access to adult education was difficult to secure at this time. Alby always said, “Knowledge is power. Only in Australia can knowledge bring such opportunity.”
Alby worked his way into management roles, taking up the role of Borthwicks Abattoir Australian Operations Manager based in Yarraville. He was responsible for also managing other Borthwicks abattoirs at Albany WA, Launceston Tasmania, Mackay Queensland and several smaller operations. Their two boys Grant and Dean were involved in sport which Alby often coached. Gloria said that at one time she remembers being the orange lady, time keeper as well as waving the goals in for the AFL and washing 100 guernseys from
10-17 year olds. All this had to be achieved in Melbourne weather. She said, “They were great and happy family times.” By this time Alby had become “like the policeman for the company” travelling from abattoir to abattoir addressing wastage of both product and money. It was during this time that he received a call from Harold Conkey offering him the manager’s job at the Cootamundra Abattoir. Gloria said she was devastated when their first house was sold, combined with leaving a wonderful community; however, they flew to Wagga and prepared to make the journey to Cootamundra.
It was at this time that Gloria said she was shocked to learn that Coota was not in Queensland. Gloria and Alby made their home in the village of Muttama and it was here that Gloria learned to spin, and milk Blossom their cow. Alby decided that they did not have enough feed for Blossom’s calf, Spec, so he organised a one way trip to the abattoir. He joked that night that he had seen Spec that day. She had said, “Where?” and he said, “ Hanging in the abattoir.” He thought it was funny. Gloria said she could not eat meat for the next 6 months. They moved into Cootamundra, buying Andrew and Kath Turner’s house and business.
PART 2 IS OUT NOW IN TODAY’S TWIN TOWN TIMES DATE JUNE 1.
