Vale Rhonda Turner

Filed in Opinions, Recent News by July 26, 2016

I am sad to report that Rhonda Turner passed away last night after a long and brave battle with ten brain tumours.

Keryn Turner, Charlie Teo and Rhonda Turner at Sydney Town Hall last week.

Dr Charlie Teo and Rhonda Turner in February.

For more than 15 years Rhonda was the well-known editor of the Scone Advocate, chronicling the events of the area, telling people’s stories with humour and kindness and writing about controversial matters with frankness and fairness.

Rhonda was my first editor and the first thing she did was warn me that the voice of your first editor would remain in your head forever.

She was right, every time I read the word “very” I hear Rhonda’s voice as she ranted about the superfluous nature of the word.

“If the car is going very fast, what does that even mean, how fast is very fast compared to fast?” she questioned.

“It was either travelling fast or it wasn’t and if there needs to be a description then use the speed,” Rhonda said.

She taught me more than any of my other mentors, but then she was a whole newsroom wrapped into one.

She developed the photographs, laid out the paper, arranged the interviews, planned the story list, covered the sport, the tragedies, the human interest, the court report, police rounds, she wore all of the newsroom hats, but it wasn’t only that she was able to wear all of these hats, it was that she was able to do it so well.

One of the most daunting things as a journalist is the ‘door knock’, when a tragedy has occurred and you contact the family or friends.

When explaining how to approach families, she said in a small country town it was in some ways easier to do because you knew them, but much more difficult because you knew them.

She covered many accidents and tragedies and she did it with a minimum of fuss and the perfect balance of professionalism and compassion that ensured the families were comfortable talking with her even at such a difficult time.

A sense of humour is also an essential ingredient in a good newsroom and Rhonda’s sharp wit and keen sense of the absurd always kept even the smallest newsroom entertaining; she tried to become uncharacteristically serious after she broke her ribs, but for weeks it just meant we’d hear her laugh followed by her shrieking in pain, it’s a wonder her ribs ever healed.

Rhonda’s friends and family didn’t like going down the street with her, a simple errand inevitably turned into a chat with every second person, but she usually walked away with a few story leads, and even after she finished at the paper she would still stop, still interested in hearing people’s stories.

When I last spoke to Rhonda a couple of months ago before she went to a nursing home in Charlestown, we chatted about local politics, local media, court reporting and a range of stories.

While I was there to say goodbye, she had trained me well and I knew I’d be sitting down to write this piece about her soon and so I kept turning the conversation to her life, how she moved to Scone, how she ended up in journalism and so forth.

She gave brief, polite answers to my questions, but said, “I really didn’t do many community things, I was on a few committees, but not something you could list.”

Forever the editor, she was still giving me writing instructions and then talked about some of the people she had interviewed over the years who had long lists of committees they had sat on and things they’d contributed to the community.

That day, like every other day, she was always more interested in other people’s stories than her own.

Rhonda contributed to the community in a much more meaningful way than sitting on committees, she gave voice to other people’s stories, she told the story of our community and she kept a public record that was insightful and fair.

When she researched the various editors of the Scone Advocate as part of a 120 year celebration, she clearly had an admiration for the contribution they made to our community and while she was dismissively humble of her own contribution, she was also admired not just for the role she had in the community but the way she filled it.

I will miss her sharp mind, which even after ten brain surgeries was still sharper than most.

I will miss her dry sense of humour and her sense of fair play.

I am sad I won’t hear her smart-arse comments anymore, but I am glad I will hear her voice every time I write.

Rest well my friend.

SignatureElizabethFlahertyR

 

 

 

Editor of scone.com.au

Update: Funeral Arrangements.

Rhonda’s last story: Amazing People Unplugged

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