Well known Mount Isa identity Betty Regeling has died.
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Mrs Regeling was a legend in local volunteering circles as the coordinator of Mount Isa Volunteers, organising workers for community and charity organisation events.
Her son Steve Regeling announced the news of her passing on Facebook on Wednesday morning.
“It is with deep sorrow that I announce to everyone the news Betty Regeling passed away today,” Mr Regeling said.
“RIP Mum. Love you always.”
Betty is survived by her husband Allan, with the pair celebrating 60 years of marriage in 2014.
Betty grew up on a country farm in South East Queensland.
Allan was 18 while and Betty was 17 when they met at a country dance in Waterford in the Logan area south of Brisbane.
Betty was chaperoned by her stepfather, who protected her at dances by insisting she had the last dance with him.
The next day Allan and his friends visited Betty's dairy farm.
Her mother prepared Sao biscuits, cake and a pot of tea and they sang around the piano and Allan asked her parents if he could take Betty out.
”When a lad courted a girl in those days they came to the house and did chores for you,'' Betty said in 2014.
They married in Beenleigh three years later on Saturday, June 5, 1954.
Allan got a job at Mount Isa Mines and they arrived in the Isa just before Christmas 1958, with only £12 between them. “We arrived at the train station just as a ‘bedourie’, a very thick dust storm, hit the town,'' Betty recalled.
Allan and Betty had three sons who grew to be top sportsmen and Australian champions, with the oldest two involved in motorcycling.
Steven was born in 1959, Daniel in 1961 and Michael in 1966.
The couple were involved in motorbike racing for 40 years from 1956 to 1996.
Allan was a champion racer and Betty was a secretary and promoter of a racing club.
Two of their sons were also speedway solos and sidecars champion racers.
They also shared a common interest in fishing and camping, which were regular family events.
The family left town in 1972 so Daniel could receive more medical attention after a motorcycle accident.
In 2002 Allan and Betty returned to Mount Isa to retire.
Allan helped build the Hard Times Mine and they remained active members in the community.
Betty had been an active volunteer since the 1960s.
“To many, their charity or community event cannot run without the generous support of the volunteer,” she said in 2008.
“Your reward is good health and wellbeing, knowing your hour or hours are very beneficial to yourself and extremely valuable to your community.”