Mrs Leita Boswell by MoretonBayColleges

Vale Mrs Leita Maude Boswell (nee Beattie) 8 March 1939 - 26 November 2021 Memorial Anthology

Read September

Mrs Millicent Drewe, the Principal, was one of the most amazing women I have ever met. She interviewed me and gave me the position of teaching years two and three. There were three other young staff, Esme, Glen, Oriel Handley and myself: we took it in turns to care for the boarders, one night a week and one weekend a month. The other staff were only day staff. Looking after the boarders was a tiring but rewarding task. Just recently I met one of the boarders who was now a grandmother and she told me I was more of a mother to her than her own mother, as she only went home twice a year. of my life, by Leita 2017 at the OGA Centenary Service

The Mistress in Charge was responsible for checking everyone had a shower, taking charge in the dining room for dinner, taking prep for the boarders homework and organising them to get to bed on time with no talking after lights out at nine. The next morning the Mistress on duty made sure the girls were up on time, was in charge of their breakfast, made sure they were dressed in their uniform which was itself a very innovative style. A red checked sun dress with a bolero, designed by Mrs Drewe uniform for Queensland summer. The boarders and Mistress on duty were ready for school by nine o’clock.

The young staff were involved as the Mistress on duty, they were assisted by a couple of Matrons. These ladies, Mrs Alice Tench, Miss Ruth Francis and Miss Bristol were there to help with the boarders.

After finishing my teacher training I applied for a teaching position at Moreton Bay College. This was a small boarding school with 100 boarders and 50 day girls situated in Bay Terrace at Wynnum.

Reflections

The next floor down was where the younger girls slept, called Paradise and South Verandah. At the weekend the Mistress on duty checked all the lockers and belongings in the dormitories, then supervised study until lunchtime. In the afternoon we often took the Boarders to the theatre or some sporting event. On Sunday we supervised the boarders getting dressed, having breakfast and walking to either the Methodist or Presbyterian Church service. Home for lunch, then rest time in the afternoon. I remember I was so tired I would fall asleep on one of the boarders beds and wake to find them playing all around me. Sunday night was organised Hymn Singing - then early to bed to be up to start the week again. I left MBC in 1965 to be married and we moved to the Gold Coast where Ron was an insurance agent. In 1966 Cathy was born and we lived at the coast until the end of 1966. When we returned to Brisbane, Mrs Winchester the Headmistress at MBC rang me and asked to bring the baby to school for everyone to meet. When I arrived at school, Mrs Viola Winchester had the baby out of my arms and me in the classroom faster than you can imagine. She asked me to come back teaching part time and bring Cathy, who played with the Housekeeper and staff of the boarding school until I finished teaching. We always say Cathy went to school when she was one year old.

Theneeded.oldschool

Mrs Leita Boswell at her desk

3 Mrs Drewe’s office and her accommodation were at the front of the school. However, it needed to be a very important occurrence to call her. During school time these boarding matrons helped the kitchen staff making the wonderful thick sandwiches, called scrape for morning tea and then prepared lunch. Miss Bristol would walk up Bay Terrace to buy the meat and food

was a grand old building. The upstairs dormitory was where the older boarders slept, one was called Astronomers and the other Suffragettes.

I continued part time at MBC until Stephen was born in One1969.day in 1974 I received a letter from Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association (PMSA) to say that Moreton Bay College was closing! At this stage Cathy was a Moreton Bay Girl in Year 4 and I was at home as Stephen had just stared school at Guardian Angels.

After this we appealed to the now Uniting Church to take over our precious school. With the help of the wonderful local Minister Rev Stoddard we went to every Uniting Church Minister we knew and appealed for their help as the Synod was coming up where a decision would be made. During this time many local residents were keen to become involved. A meeting was called and was well attended by local and Redlands people. Mr Bill Lamond had just been elected as local member and he and Ron attended these meetings. I always think that this was Ron’s first political forum. These gatherings were a real show of strength. The ladies group held their gatherings as well and worked amazingly hard to organise art shows and other social functions. These all helped to show we were not giving up without a fight. The Mason family came at this time to enrol their three beautiful daughters. Imagine what an uplift this was when the numbers were down to about forty as the boarders were all allocated places in the other boarding schools. As well as this Mr John Mason took up the position as chairman of the Board and he and Pat worked so hard with the other parents Mrs Boswell and Miss Handley

After hours of tears I set out for the school to ask Mrs Winchester, Miss Handley and other staff what we could do. I went back teaching to help Mrs McDonald in the Primary School. I worked for three years with no pay, the other staff took-pay cuts and Mrs Winchester worked so hard and did so much to maintain this beautiful old building. One day Miss Handley and I found a plaque on the back of a door in the Assembly Hall which read: “The Misses Green leave this school to the Methodist Church.” So, Miss Handley and I went to the PMSA board of Governors and said, “You cannot close MBC because you don’t own it!”

c. 1960s Mrs Boswell with class 5

to put the school on a secure foundation. All who were involved at this time gave “their all and more” to keep our beautiful school going. When the Uniting Church agreed to take over the running of MBC we were absolutely thrilled with the decision. A plan was designed to move to a new campus and to have a day school not a boarding school. Mr Jim Dean from James Dean Real Estate at Tingalpa had a block of land at Wondall Road, Wynnum for sale and the Uniting Church were very interested. At this time, I went to the State Government Campaign launch in Brisbane and in his election speech I heard Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen state that the Government would pay some of the interest on new buildings erected in the Private Schools. So Ron approached Mr Claude Wharton, the Minister at the time and we were granted payment of some of the interest arising from the new buildings. This was a great help. It was decided to move the Primary School to the new campus before the remainder of the school. So with 26 students Miss Irena, Mrs Libby Parkinson and myself moved to Wondall Road to start the new Moreton Bay College with six classrooms built to represent “old Queensland homesteads” with verandahs on each side and lofts at the top of each classrooms as areas for quiet reading. Mr Roderick, the architect, had carefully planned the buildings to catch every breeze. The staff and the children were really thrilled with the new surroundings. After the years spent in the main Wynnum shopping area we felt we were living in the country. The little ones would play outside near the rock walls and I would hear the cry “Mrs Boswell - snake! A Itsnake!”would be a small green snake and I would take off my high-heeled shoe and kill the snake. The girl’s thought I was very brave!

1990_Mrs Leita Boswell, Head of Junior School

1981-19971979

Mrs Leita Boswell and Miss Gabriella Elmaneh

The Moreton Bay College Fairy Tale Book special fairy tale book to all the Moreton Bay College Prep Students

given

2021 7

Tuesday 30 November 2022

Mum was the eldest of five girls. The big sister to Merle, Ann, Wilma and Lyn. Leita grew up on a farm at Calico Creek outside Gympie and never did I see anyone less likely to live on a farm. The highlight of each year was leaving the farm and heading to Noosa for the Christmas break and spending six glorious sundrenched weeks with her sisters.

Leita with granddaughter Sophie MBC

Leita attended Calico Creek State School, a one teacher school with approximately 20 students, five of those being the Beattie girls. This one room school is now a museum in Gympie and last Christmas we visited it with Mum and she relived her old school days, it was a very special day for us all. At school Mum starred in the boys soccer team, being the only girl brave enough to pull on the jersey and make up the numbers. Of course, Mum did this with her usual dignity and decorum and ended up playing in her tennis dress, always the fashionista. She was the first student at Calico Creek to pass scholarship and attended Gympie High school. Leita’s Mother wanted great things for her girls, they were not to learn to milk a cow, she had other ideas for them. So at a tender age she sent Mum off for a job interview at Moreton Bay College. Mum got the job and it was the beginning of her love for teaching. Miss Beattie as some of you would know her, was a young country girl and there she was in charge of a group of boarders for the weekend. She often told me stories of getting those boarders onto trams to take them to the Valley baths and how difficult this was for her. Yet when I see the photos of Miss Beattie with beautiful clothes and a beehive hairstyle she looked every part of the modern young women of the 60s.

My mother, Leita Boswell was the most exceptional person! She was a beautiful lady. She had three passions in life and she was very devoted to each of them. Her Family, her faith and her love of educating young girls at her beautiful Moreton Bay College.

Eulogy by loving daughter Cathy Boswell

Leita at Calico Creek State School Mum moved to New Farm and shared a house with her sister Merle and her friend Beris, she often showed me the places she lived around New Farm and told me how she would love to sit and watch the weddings on Saturday afternoon at Holy Spirt church. These seemed like fun times for her.

A part-time teaching position became available at the orphanage school at Nazareth House. She would walk from our house at Wynnum North carrying Stephen to teach in the orphanage, she would often bring some of those kids home for weekend visits, I imagine this was the only kindness some of these children ever saw.

It wasn’t long before she met my father Ron at The Ritz and she fell for the old line, “come see my yacht.” If there is one thing I am absolutely certain of, my mother would never have been impressed by a boat, so it was obvious that she saw something in Ron that she could build a 56 year marriage on. Dad, the kids and I all believe that was the best day of Dad’s life. They were married in 1965 and she continued to work at MBC until my arrival in 1966. Mum and Dad then moved to Broadbeach for Dad’s work and these were tough financial times. I remember mum saying she’d have to save up to buy little baby things for me at a shop called Mee Mee’s. It wasn’t long before they were back in Brisbane and Mum dropped into Moreton Bay to show me off. Mrs Winchester was the Principal in those days she got mum to hand the baby off to Miss Francis the housekeeper, whilst mum went to visit the classroom. As you can imagine that was it. Mum was back teaching and Miss Francis and I did the shopping for the boarders. At 3:30pm each day Mum with me on her hip would catch the bus into the Valley and head into the newly formed R Boswell and Co where she worked in the warehouse as the unpaid Stallman packer and invoice clerk. These were physically tough times but Mum and Dad work together to build a successful business. Dad often says she was the best Stallman packer he ever had! She was the best partner he could have ever have had. She encouraged him in business and later on in politics. Mum continued working her two jobs until the arrival of my brother Stephen.

It was in 1974 when I was a Moreton Bay Girl myself that a letter was sent home saying that the PMSA were going to close the school. At that point there was 74 students at Moreton Bay College. Mum met with Mrs Winchester, and Miss Handley to form a team to combat the closure, I remember these wonderful women who shared such a passion for educating young women working together to keep their beloved Moreton Bay College going. Mum and Miss Handley found a plaque saying who the Green sisters had left the school to. These women asked the Uniting Church to take over the ownership of the school. I remember driving up to Spring Hill whilst Mum went to meet

MissHandley, Mrs Boswell and old girls

the Uniting Church leadership begging them to take over the school, her argument was that “they surely could not deny a girl a Christian education.” Eventually the Uniting Church agreed and some of you here have been given the great privilege of this wonderful education. Mum showed me and those she taught that women working together can in fact change the world. She was a trail blazer in women’s rights and yet she did it in such a beautiful, gentle, caring way it was often Mumoverlooked.wasappointed

headmistress of the new primary school at Wondall Road, she, Libby Parkinson and Suzie Smart were the only staff members here. These were exciting times watching this beautiful campus develop from the quiet rural area it was then. I remember the excitement of the primary classrooms being built and the opulence of having reading lofts. Never at that time could you imagine the beauty of the current Moreton Bay College. This was the time when she would spend every holidays flying to Sydney to see her beloved Tom. He was the light of her life and when we moved to Brisbane and she had the opportunity to retire and spend more time with him she did. Watching Tom and his Grandma Duck play football and cricket together was an absolute joy. She loved this time with him and it helped him to develop into the man he is today. Beard and all. Mum’s other interest was politics and in the seventies with two small children she decided she was not going to put up with what was happening in Australian politics and she would do something about it. We lived in Wynnum the seat was Labor, it had always been Labor and to most people it would always remain Labor. That didn’t put my mother off. She started campaigning she took Stephen and I and did letterbox drops, we went to rallys, she got my father involved and they campaigned for Bill Lamond, he won this unwinnable seat, the first time a metropolitan seat had been won by the country party. This was the beginning of my father’s 32 year political career. It was instigated by my mother and continued to be fuelled by her, every evening for 32 years Dad would ring from Canberra and they would have a discussion of the political ideas of the day, she would encourage him to continue the fight. They were a political team and I know that Dad could not have stayed there or been as successful without her as his political sounding board. Mum was the most beautiful stylish, kind and impressive woman. I am grateful that my children have had the great joy of having her as such a huge part of their lives.

Girls lunch out MBC

Miss Boswell, Mrs Rebecca Lennon and Miss Handley Staff

Mum’s other passions were family, faith and Moreton Bay. She loved her family and she shared in every aspect of our lives. She taught us about unconditional love, she taught us the importance of family, she was our rock. She was friendly to everyone and loved to share her family with you. You all know us through her, you know how proud she was of Tom working in mines in WA, that he has found a wonderful girl and that they are having a baby, and the best bit about that for mum was that they are having a baby girl. You know her beautiful Sophie is studying physio and that she is the going to be the best physio ever. Sophie would do exercises with Mum three times a week it was the highlight of her week. They would laugh and there was always coffee and stories afterwards. Sophie and Mum are two peas in a pod they are both beautiful women, they shared a love for fashion, and makeup and nothing makes either of them as happy as being together to buy a new dress or checking out Mecca for the newest powder or lipstick. My mother was always immaculate and even as I took her to the hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning she refused to leave the house without a full face of makeup. You know all about William, our baby and how he has grown into such a handsome young man and how he is planning on being a pilot, she adored him. You all heard about all Boz’s political antics and how proud she was of him. Mum often told me that on the day of my birth she unwrapped me and told me that we would be best friends and we were best friends. We went shopping and to lunch twice a week every week, we talked, we laughed and we shopped. We would spend Wednesday at Carindale and every week she would say ‘let’s just buy a new top to make us happy’. We did virtually every week. I spoke to her every day of my life and I will always miss those conversations. She loved us and she shared it with you all. Mums faith was unbelievable, it never shook, it never wavered. She went through dark days especially with the death of her beautiful son Stephen who she was always so proud of. Her faith remained an integral part of who she was even after the death of Stephen. She was our rock here too, she taught us by her actions what faith is. In fact, she built a Christian school in East Timor in 2001, in memory of her beautiful Stephen. The children of East Timor had very little formal education and there were simply no secondary schools. Mum and Dad paid for a new Secondary School, St Stephen’s to be built in Viqueque, to give the East Timorese the benefits of a good education. Mum, Dad and Tom went to the opening of the school it was such an adventure. They had to be accompanied by military personnel to get there, they drove through the dense Open Day 1994

c.1960 Primary class

11 rainforest with limited roads to celebrate the opening of this life changing school. This trip was a highlight it brought together her love for Stephen and her love for Mum’seducation.love and compassion were immense. She shared her faith and her knowledge with everyone. She had a scripture reading for every occasion and I have so many beautiful handwritten scriptures that she has left me. I found this one this morning and it will definitely help me to get through this day: “No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor 2:3. I can only imagine what God has prepared for my beautiful, faithful mother. Sophie would spend every Sunday morning with Mum they would go to church together or watch it online. This was a wonderful time of shared faith between them. These early Sunday mornings were often after a late night in the Valley for Sophie. Mum loved to hear all the news of the night before and all about Sophie’s dating life, she loved the gossip and to know all the news. This made her Sundays so special. This was often followed by a visit from her beautiful William for afternoon tea, Mum would always make a cake for these visits. William was always her baby. She looked after him every day until he went to Terrace. They went to the park together, they painted, they played together, these were Ducky days, these were the best days. William would not be the beautiful strong, caring young man he is today without such love from his Duck. Being surrounded by Family and Faith that was the most important thing for Mum. My mother loved children, particularly little girls and was avid about teaching. Moreton Bay College was the most perfect fit. She loved primary aged children their innocence, their capacity for learning, their openness to life. Mum loved being a primary school teacher, she loved every child. She loved teaching long division! She loved being part of a child’s journey. She has been a part in many of your journeys please continue her legacy of passion for life and love. Thank you for coming and celebrating her life with us today.

Mr Paul Teys was appointed Principal from the start of the school year in 1999. During that year the Leita Boswell Hall, a primary school sports and general performance hall, was opened and dedicated in honour of Leita Boswell (Beattie), Head of Primary from 1981 to 1997. The following year, a prep facility was built adjacent to the Hargreaves Road entrance to the College.

Leita Boswell Hall

Mrs Leita Boswell and Mrs Sandy of Leita Boswell Hall

BoardmanOpening

To you our school we owe so much That we cannot repay The opening lines of the Moreton Bay College song, a song that Cathy Boswell believes she could sing before she could even talk, capture the spirit of Mrs Leita Boswell and the deep gratitude this school owes to her passion for, and belief in, the holistic education MBC provides for young girls and women; a belief inspired by the visionary Greene sisters - our Founders - who sought to educate the whole girl and ensure she had confidence, courage and hope to face the future –whatever it may hold. I am honoured to have been asked by the Boswell family to share some very special memories of an outstanding educator and an exemplary Head of Primary. We do owe so much to Mrs Leita Boswell, or Miss Beattie as she was known to many of the Moreton Bay boarders in her early days at Bay Terrace, and we hope today by honouring her formidable and enduring legacy we, in some small way, repay our heartfelt thanks for her 40 years of unwavering service. I began my career at MBC in 1997, the year Mrs Boswell retired, but in the years following, staff, girls and old girls spoke of their great respect and admiration for her leadership, her kindness and it soon became clear to me the impact she had on the MBC story was immeasurable. Speaking with Ron and Cathy last week, remembering with staff, talking to old girls and rereading our Moreton Bay College centenary history, only affirmed Leita Boswell’s influence on generations of the Moreton Bay family. Miss Beattie, as she was then, began her five decades at the College in 1957 as a teacher and resident mistress in the boarding house. The story unfolds that Leita Beattie’s mother was determined that her five daughters would not give their lives to the land as she had done, and thus they were all educated and encouraged to look beyond the lives they knew growing up on a farm. Indeed, it seems it was actually Leita’s mother who applied for the job at MBC for her and arranged with Mrs Drewe for her to take up the position; it seems Leita, her mother and sisters came from the same stock of strong women as the Greene sisters. Under the guidance of the then Headmistress, Mrs Drewe, Miss Beattie was comforted and reassured Mrs Rebecca Lennon, Mrs Leita Boswell and Mrs Janet Stewart

14 by the ‘motherly influence’ of the headmistress and was impressed by the wonderfully warm relationships enjoyed among the girls and with staff; in many ways the boarding school felt like home.

Sharing her memories in the 1997 Moretonian, Mrs Boswell spoke of the impact this strong woman, Mrs Drewe, had on her own life. She admired her progressive ideas - her greater academic focus for girls, and a change of the uniform to the pink checks we know today - and she held fast to much of her wisdom shared at her famous Sunday night talks. Mrs Boswell credited Mrs Drewe with encouraging her to think for herself and advised that you should never write down anything that you were not prepared for the whole world to see – a wisdom our girls would do well to heed in their world of social media. It seems the young Leita Beattie was inspired to see education as a means for women to liberate themselves from the restriction’s society imposed on them at this time. The school song also speaks to ‘the joys’ for which we are to be thankful and the ‘happy hours we spent when work was done’ and Mrs Boswell’s memories of the 1960s highlight many happy memories of this time. She wrote of the fun they had ‘preparing the old hall for dances with Brisbane Boys’ College’, and of the ‘happy recollections which come flooding back of Saturday afternoons at the ballet, followed by a cool relaxing walk to the beach front and out along the old Wynnum Pier’. Living with girls, and sharing such a close relationship with them, it was not a surprise that the MBC girls had a significant interest in Miss Beattie’s romantic life too. In our archives, Boarders tell of their excitement when Miss Beattie’s ‘special friend’ would call on the school phone and they would secretly listen for updates on the progress of this romance – and their insistence that Ron Boswell attend the school picnic so that they could check he was a suitable beau for their beloved Miss Beattie – clearly, he was given their stamp of approval for they were married. However, just a few years later, and exemplifying a woman to forge her own path, Mrs Boswell retuned to MBC while expecting her first child – which was unheard of at this time - and once again the MBC girls embraced this new experience, calling the baby Cathy (which clearly caught on ) long before Cathy Boswell arrived in this world.

In the following decade of the 1970s the words of the school song, ‘courage and hope in all we do’ again define the legacy of Mrs Boswell. The great joy of her daughter Cathy donning the pink checks and 1979 Mrs Leita Boswell with typing_Commercial Studies class

becoming a Bay girl in the early 70s was tempered by the later alarming news that the PMSA was planning to close Moreton Bay College. History tells us that Mrs Boswell and Miss Handley discovered a plaque under the stairs at Bay Terrace which indicated that the PMSA did not in fact own Moreton Bay College and armed with this knowledge and her enviable courage and hope, Mrs Boswell, supported by her husband Ron, and a trusty band of parents who were roused to action by Leita’s fierce determination to keep faith with providing the best educational foundation for young women, fought closure and thankfully won. At this time, Mrs Boswell was invited to return to teach and in these tough times did so generously without payment; this emulates again a sentiment in the school song, ‘a willingness to share with them all that we have and know’. Mrs Boswell’s sacrifice and willingness to share her God given talents knew no bounds. During this time, it is clear that Mrs Boswell was a tower of strength, and her tenacity played no small part in the College being incorporated by the Uniting Church of Australia in 1979, and thus the 1980s witnessed impressive growth in her beloved Primary school. In January 1984, after years of College and parent fundraising, and support from a Senator with close ties to the Head of Primary, the Primary school opened with 122 students on the current Wondall Road campus. In preparing for this momentous occasion, staff and students working together, directed by Mrs Boswell, packed up at Bay Terrace, and moved furniture and resources in their own cars to the new site. It is a tribute to Mrs Boswell’s courage and hope that so many teachers, staff and parents made the College so much part of their lives and the 80s saw the primary, and then the secondary, grow and flourish.

1989 Mrs Leita Boswell and Mrs Anne Browning

1979 Organising students Bay Terrace

1997 Leita Boswell’s last Primary Speech Night

Mrs Janet Stewart, Moreton Bay College Principal Out on the Oval - Moreton Bay College

Mrs Boswell had been an iconic leader of the primary school for such a long time that it was inconceivable her tenure would ever end, and yet it did in 1997. On retirement, Mrs Boswell wrote, ‘I have loved Moreton Bay College and its students for more than 40 years and I thank God for every day I have spent here. I consider it a privilege to have played a small part in the lives of so many girls and to be able to use my God given gift of a love of children in their education.’ Her final words in this tribute echo the words of her beloved school song, ‘I will never forget my days at Moreton Bay’. And Moreton Bay has never forgotten Mrs Boswell –her service, her kindness, and her unwavering belief in the importance of education for girls. In recognition of her unfailing faith, and commitment to the survival of the Moreton Bay College vision and mission, a new multipurpose sports hall, where we will shortly enjoy lunch, was raised in her honour in 1999. In 2017, the Old Girls recognised her service naming her Patroness of their association. And of course, the ultimate honour, to be cast as a leading lady in a stunning fairy-tale capturing the gripping narrative of Dame Leita Boswell’s courageous and hopeful role in the quest to save her ‘great love’ and establish a new Kingdom where all could live happily ever after.

At the new school, things were different and challenging but Mrs Boswell let no obstacle stand in her path of delivering an outstanding experience for her girls –even if it meant wrangling with snakes, which were a frightening occurrence at the new expansive bushland school setting. Many a tale has been told of the stylish Mrs Boswell, carefully removing her beautiful stiletto heels to deal with any reptiles which might be worrying her girls.

The MBC Primary in the 1990s, led by Mrs Boswell’s vision, brought further ‘honour to our school’. The growth in enrolments resulted in MBC being the largest GPS primary school in the state and second largest in Australia. In Mrs Boswell’s own words, ‘the Cinderella school of the PMSA group became the envy of all’. Indeed, Mrs Boswell’s own reputation as a respected educational leader was cemented when she was one of the inaugural women to join the prestigious Junior Heads of Independent Schools Association and attended its first conference to include female heads of school in 1986. It is a testament to her ability to advocate for the importance of the foundational work of primary schools, and her ability to just ‘get things done’, when she was elected to be the first woman to serve as president of the Association in 1988- 89.

The fruits of Mrs Boswell’s labours resulted in MBC establishing its reputation as a strong academic school, with excellent results in public speaking, debating and the cultural arts and a burgeoning reputation for its spirited competition in sport, winning an Andrews Cup Pennant for the first time in the late 80s and it was to be followed by many more successes across all sports.

As Mrs Boswell departed Moreton Bay, she chose the words of Isiah 40:31 to capture her feelings, Those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles They will run and not get weary They will walk and not grow faint In closing, on behalf of Moreton Bay College, I give thanks for the life and service of Mrs Leita Boswell, who never grew weary or faint, and whose strength, courage and hope allowed her to rise on wings like an eagle and ‘prove her heart was true’ to this school and her God.

With Courage and Hope, Lily 2021MacDonald,OGAPresident 1990’s Leita Boswell - Forever stylish 1997 with students

On behalf of the Old Girls’ Association and the MBC community, past and current, we extend our sincere condolences to Mrs Boswell’s family. Our girls share fond memories of Mrs Boswell and her rich contribution to Moreton Bay College and shaping its future, particularly the Primary School. Mrs Boswell’s strong legacy lives on in each of us, especially the girls who are lucky enough to have been part of our Primary WithSchool.her gentle nature and sincere heart, Mrs Boswell has seen many generations of students thrive in the Primary Years and she will be missed.

On behalf of all the Old Girls’ and their families, we pledge to honour the compassion and commitment Mrs Boswell has extended to us during her precious Welife.

are thinking of all past students, teachers and their families during this time, and encourage you to reach out if you would like to share any memories.

Messages of love appreciationand

She was such a wonderful woman and a great educator. I adored her as a teacher and I always admired that she remembered everyone’s nameCourtney N.

I first worked in the Primary School and totally adored Leita as a role model for her girls and her staff. She had/has star quality and is very genuine. Leita, I always loved your beautiful smile - Karen R.

LOVE Mrs Boswell! She was always so immaculately dressed! - Genevieve M.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Mrs Boswell in recent years. Our coffee and shopping dates were the highlights of my week. Our love of fashion and all things MBC will always remain with me. You will be dearly missed Leita - Alex.G Toowomba Reunion 2018

She was such a wonderful woman and a great educator. I adored her as a teacher and I always admired that she remembered everyone’s nameCourtney N.

I loved Mrs Boswell, she was my favourite teacher...and a lovely lady all round - Kylie P. I loved Mrs Boswell. She was my favourite teacherCatherine H. Hair and dress always stylish, our Grade 7 teacher at Bay Terrace - Janet L.

Mrs Boswell was always immaculate and very stylishHannah T. Beautiful Mrs Boswell. A wonderful educator and leader. I loved teaching under her at Wondall Road campusHeather Z. Stunning lady and a beautiful person. My favourite teacher - Belinda H-C Such a gorgeous lady - Sue-Ellen N.

How to articulate the impact one woman had on so many: I would not be who I am but for the profound investment she made in me as both an 11 year old student and a 35 year old mother. - Amanda L.

I couldn't wait to be in Mrs Boswell's class in primary school - Nerida C. Always so beautifully dressed and coiffed and a very fine educator. A true Bay girl and always such a wonderful role model - Dajo F. Such a beautiful kind woman! Definitely always immaculately and stylishly dressed - Beck D Always immaculately presented, well spoken and classy. A true lady. I still remember her rule about not applying lipstick in public - Courtney P.

Miss Handley, Mrs Boswell and Miss Lominga Oct 2020 Toowomba Reunion 2018 April 2008 Leita Boswell Visit Open Day 1994 1988_7B -Cake for fund raising 19

Moreton Bay College OLD GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION