Janice Yvonne Monteath (nee Brown) was born on 9 April 1942 and raised in Tākaka New Zealand.
It was a small town situated at the south-eastern end of Golden Bay, at the northern end of New Zealand’s South Island and located on the lower reaches of the Tākaka River.
Janice and her parents Gordon Brown (a bridge builder) and Sylvia (nee Cook) moved to Blenheim when she was 10.
She was keen to be a hairdresser and started her apprenticeship at 15.
She loved hairdressing so much that she did never retire from it and worked up until her recent illness prevented her from doing hair.
She once told her eldest daughter, Marylee, that if she ever said she was sick of doing someone’s hair then that was when she would give it up – but that never happened.
Janice met the love of her life Malcolm Dennis Monteath, known as Monty to all who knew him, when he was stationed at Blenheim at Woodbourne Air Force base learning his craft as an Aircraft Engineer, when he wasn’t playing his guitar.
He was a friend of Jeff Grey who was seeing Janice’s sister Lorraine at the time and that’s how they met.
Monty and Janice fell in love and were married on 19 August 1961 in a somewhat unconventional wedding.
“Dad broke his leg the week before (the wedding) playing rugby union and he arrived at the church in a wheelchair, so all in all Mum said it was a sombre affair,“ said Marylee.
While their married life started out sombre, their life together was anything but.
They moved to Christchurch and in November 1961, they welcomed their first daughter Marylee to their new family.
Tiana soon followed in December 1962 and Shane arrived in October 1964.
It was sometime in 1972 when Janice opened her own hairdressing salon called Yvonne Hair Stylists and that kept her busy.
She loved hairdressing so much she would do it from home as well as the salon.
“I can remember the weddings well, she cared about how her clients looked and always tried to create styles that suited them,“ said Marylee.
She was a lady with many passions, and it was during the 1970s she decided to train with world class singing teacher, Grace Wilkinson, and learned the art of opera singing.
One of her fondest memories was when she went to see Ivan Rebroff and he serenaded her in the audience, and took her to supper with the crew.
“She absolutely loved this event!“ said Marylee.
“It was a special moment for her – not to mention an eyeopener for dad!“
In 1982, Janice and Monty moved to Australia to the warmth of Tropical Far North Queensland mainly for Monty’s bronchial asthma.
“It was lovely being warm all the time and Dad could finally breathe a lot better,“ Marylee said.
They got work on Mornington Island situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria at Birri Beach Lodge.
They were the caretakers of the secluded lodge.
A less pleasant memory for Janice happened during their time there.
“Mum was extremely afraid of spiders … and she said they were standing on the stairs and hundreds of red backs scared the ’bejeezus’ out of her as they came swarming out after fumigation,“ she said.
Not long after arriving on the Island their youngest, Shane, came to Australia to live with them from Christchurch.
Then in November 1984 the couple sold up their property in New Zealand, resettled their second eldest daughter Tiana in a flat in Christchurch and Marylee went back to live with them in Cairns.
They had a flat on the Esplanade in Cairns and Janice was the head housekeeper for a motel just a few metres away from their flat.
Janice put her enviable talent to good use joining the Cairns chorale society and performing as a nun in their production of the Sound of Music.
During their time in Cairns Janice worked in management at various hospitality venues such as The Stratford Hotel, Fawlty Toms Buffet Restaurant and the Seychelles restaurant, just to name a few.
She was also still hairdressing from home.
After 20 years in Cairns the couple decided to see the country in their 1970 VG Valiant.
When they broke down across the road from a real estate agent in Gympie, and saw a farmhouse in Two Mile for sale in the window, they saw that as a sign and moved to Gympie.
Janice got work as a senior hairdresser in a salon and still worked from home while Monty fired up his guitar and played music around the traps.
The couple and their family got involved in country life, joining the Gympie Theatre Association for their 1995 production of Gumshoe, where Janice was in charge of the hair and makeup, while Monty was the intermission entertainment.
It was around this time Janice revealed another talent that had been simmering below the surface.
Unbeknownst to her family, Janice had a passion to learn how to decorate cakes.
As a little girl she would bake every weekend with her mum and then for her family.
She then carried that skill with her to her cake decorating career which saw her become the President of the Queensland Cake Decorators Association Gympie Branch right up until her passing.
She loved to put entries into the yearly Gympie Show where her wedding cakes would win regularly prizes.
“I was so proud to see her cakes with a prize card on them and she loved to encourage her granddaughters to bake and decorate and put entries in as well. They did very well whenever they did,“ said Marylee.
She was so passionate about trying to bridge the gap between the generations, teaching people of all ages how to create beautiful flowers and edible creations.
Janice felt everyone should be able to learn no matter their age, and always encouraged the more experienced ladies who had so much knowledge to share it with the young.
“She firmly believed that we should always strive to be the best at whatever we were doing or to just do our best,“ said Marylee.
She was proud of all the efforts of her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“Mum was someone who couldn’t do enough for people – she strived to make a difference in her life.
“She pushed herself and never showed her pain and she cared for everyone that crossed her path and made a difference in a lot of people’s lives,“ said Marylee.
Janice died on 19 May, after a short illness and leaves behind her husband Monty and children Marylee and Shane, five grandchildren – Arianne, Marissa, Juliette, Jaimeson and Aiden and six great-grandchildren, Aaliyah, Katie, Jaxon, Rylan, Holly and Kayce.
A special farewell and celebration of her life will be held in lieu of a funeral at her home on 11 June at 2pm, and all who knew Janice are welcome to attend.
Cake decorating ladies are requested to bring a plate in memory of Janice and all attendees to wear her favourite colours, orange, lime green, yellow or black.
Anyone wishing to make a speech at the event is requested to make that intention known in your RSVP to maryleemonteath61@gmail.com by Wednesday 8 June.
Gympie Today was grateful to be able to provide a brief respite and joyful moment in the final days of her life, when Janice won a Gympie Show Pass for her family from one of our competitions.
All of the staff here at the newspaper were deeply saddened to hear of her passing and extend our sincerest condolences to her husband and family during this difficult time.
