Vale Elaine Lutton

It is with considerable sadness that we advise that Elaine died in Kilcoy Hospital on Sunday 25 June 2023. Elaine was suffering from an inoperable heart condition and although her death was inevitable, it still came as a shock.

Elaine was the loving wife of Don for 49 years (Don died in 2015); sister of John, mother of Tamara and Simon, mother-inlaw of Bill and Leigh; adored grandmother of Joey, Marcus, Ava, Eadie and Penny; much loved Aunt of Susan; and treasured long time friend of Harriett.

Born in Yorkshire UK, Elaine did Honours in Zoology as well as a Diploma of Education. She moved to Australia in 1969, following her 1966 marriage to a dashing young Australian named Don Lutton. In the 1950s, Don’s father had purchased a block of land, on The Boulevard in Bongaree and had built a holiday shack there. Elaine and Don built a house on the land and made it their home. They raised their family there and have been part of the community since those early days. For many years, Elaine was a tutor at U3A.

By: Anne Matthews

Ifirst met Elaine on 16 March 2019 after a mutual friend had suggested that she join Rotary. At that time I was a member of the Rotary Club of Bribie Island. Elaine invited me to her home and told me that she wanted to be involved in the local community and join a service organisation. We spent a delightful few hours together and I read some of the wonderful short stories she had written. I found Elaine to be very intelligent, knowledgeable, funny and interesting. She had the entire Dickens collection on her book shelf and we had a wonderful conversation about literature. We also shared a love of Oscar Wilde and from our first meeting swapped many of his quotes whenever we met.

Elaine joined the Rotary Club of Bribie Island and became an iconic part of the Sunday markets team. I was writing for the Bribie Islander at the time and introduced her to the Editor. Her first article titled ‘Flu Food’ was published on 21 June 2019. In the article she admitted that she had been imbibing in a little tipple since an early age, as her mother’s flu remedy was a raw egg beaten with a generous amount of sweet sherry! This was followed by ‘Serpentine Stories’ and ‘The Dunny Door’.

The articles became popular with the community, due to their humour, wit, practicalities and observations of everyday life. The stories of her hospital visits and adventures with her ‘Italian Lover - Ferrari’ (her motorised scooter), entertained us all and somehow made our own problems less significant. Since those first articles the regular ‘Arrival’ series has been part of the fortnightly publication for the past four years.

In 2020, Elaine transferred to d9560 Passport Rotary Club. She attended the District Conferences in Gladstone in 2021 and Mackay in 2022 where she won the hearts of many of the District members and leaders. She also attended District Leadership Training where she was an absolute star.

Elaine was an avid supporter of Rotary’s End Polio campaign, World’s Greatest Meal to End Polio, our Passport Club’s Polio Koala project and Rotary International. If you were lucky enough to be on her team at our Club’s Trivia nights you were assured of a win. Her knowledge across science, geography, mathematics, literature, current affairs, music, movies and TV was amazing.

Since our meeting in 2019, Elaine took on a new enthusiasm for life. She made many new friends, not only in Rotary, but through her close friendship with Bill Peacock and Peter Sheehan, who introduced her to Don, Barbara and Cathy as well as retired nurses Helen Jefferson and Ann O’Donnell. Ann and Helen became very close to Elaine and helped her with the health struggles she faced in her last three very difficult months. I will be eternally grateful to them for their kindness and advice during this time. Also to Peter Sheehan and Darren Styles who assisted Ann with feeding Elaine before she was admitted to Kilcoy Hospital on 1 June 2023.

Elaine valued the friendship and support of ‘The Bribie Islander’ staff - Cherrie, Michele and Debbie - and I know she kept them entertained. Despite her new connections, she still made time to maintain her closeness with long-time friends and met regularly with them for a coffee and a chat.

Rest in peace my dear friend. You certainly lived a full life. As Oscar Wilde said ‘to live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all’. Now sit with Don, Bill Peacock and Tom Dutton and look down on your family, your Rotary family, friends, and our community, and make sure we continue Bill’s vision and legacy. The Bribie Island community, Rotary International, d9560 Passport Rotary Club and Rotary District 9560 have lost a valued and much loved member.