Hearing Impairment Series-Disabled Legend Sir William McMahon

Sir William "Billy" McMahon, GCMG, CH was born on 23 February 1908 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and died on 31 March 1988 of cancer in Sydney, Australia aged 80. Sir William McMahon was an Australian Liberal politician and the 20th Prime Minister of Australia.

Sir William McMahon's father was a lawyer. Sir William McMahon was of Irish ancestry.

Sir William McMahon was educated at Sydney Grammar School and at the University of Sydney, where he graduated in law. Sir William McMahon practised in Sydney with "Allen, Allen and Hemsley", the oldest law firm in Australia. In 1940 he joined the Army, but because of a hearing loss he was confined to staff work. After World War II he travelled in Europe and completed an economics degree.

Sir William McMahon was elected to the House of Representatives for the Sydney seat of Lowe in 1949, one of the flood of new Liberal MPs known as the "forty-niners". Sir William McMahon was capable and ambitious, and in 1951 Prime Minister Robert Menzies made him Minister for Air and Minister for the Navy. Over the next 15 years he held the portfolios of Social Services, Commerce and Agriculture and Labour and National Service. In 1966, when Harold Holt became Prime Minister, Sir William McMahon succeeded him as Treasurer and as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

Despite his steady advance, Sir William McMahon remained unpopular with his colleagues. Sir William McMahon was highly capable, but seen as too ambitious and a schemer. Sir William McMahon had never married, and there were frequent rumours that he was homosexual. However, in 1965, aged 57, he married Sonia Rachel Hopkins who was (born in August 1932), with whom he had 3 children: Melinda, Julian McMahon (the actor and model) and Debra.

When Harold Holt drowned in December 1967, Sir William McMahon was assumed to be his automatic successor. But John McEwen, interim Prime Minister and leader of the Country Party, announced that he and his party would not serve in a government led by Sir William McMahon. John McEwen did not state his reasons publicly, but privately he told Sir William McMahon he did not trust him. There was also John McEwen's personal dislike of Sir William McMahon for the reasons suggested in the previous paragraph, but also John McEwen, an arch-protectionist, correctly suspected that Sir William McMahon favoured policies of free trade and deregulation.

Sir William McMahon therefore withdrew, and John Gorton won the party room ballot. Sir William McMahon became Foreign Minister and waited for his chance at a comeback. Sir William McMahon stood as a candidate for the Liberal Party leadership (and therefore Prime Minister, as the Liberal/Country Party coalition held a majority in the House of Representatives) after the 1969 election but was defeated by John Gorton. In January 1971 John McEwen retired as Country Party leader and his successor, Doug Anthony, did not continue the veto against Sir William McMahon. In March 1971 the Defence Minister, Malcolm Fraser, resigned from Cabinet and denounced John Gorton, who then called a party meeting. When the confidence vote in John Gorton was tied, he resigned, and Sir William McMahon was elected leader.

Sir William McMahon found being Prime Minister an unenjoyable experience. The Vietnam War and conscription had become very unpopular. Sir William McMahon was unable to match the performance of Labor leader, Gough Whitlam, who campaigned on radical new policies such as universal health insurance. Sir William McMahon was undermined by plotting from John Gorton's supporters. Sir William McMahon attacked Gough Whitlam over his policy of recognising the People's Republic of China, then had to back down when President Nixon announced his visit to China.

Sir William McMahon reputation for economic management was undermined by high inflation. Sir William McMahon voice and appearance came across badly on television, and he was no match in parliamentary debates for Gough Whitlam, a witty and powerful orator. The press further weakened Sir William McMahon's popularity.

Sir William McMahon lost his nerve, and in the December 1972 election campaign he was outperformed by Gough Whitlam and subjected to further humiliation in the press. When Gough Whitlam won the election Sir William McMahon resigned the Liberal leadership.

Sir William McMahon had been a minister continuously for 21 years and 6 months, a record in the Australian Parliament. Only Sir George Pearce and John McEwen had longer overall ministerial service, but their terms were not continuous.

Sir William McMahon served in the Shadow Cabinet under his successor, Billy Snedden, but was dropped after the 1974 election. In 1977, he was knighted. Sir William McMahon stayed in Parliament as a backbencher until his resignation in 1982, by which time he was the longest-serving member of the House.

Honours:

Bust of William McMahon by sculptor Victor Greenhalgh located in the Prime Minister's Avenue in the Ballarat Botanical Gardens William McMahon was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1966, a Companion of Honour in the New Years Day Honours of 1972 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1977.

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Dementia Series-Disabled Legend Betty Schwartz

Betty Robinson Schwartz was born on 23 August, 1911 in Riverdale, Illinois, a small town south of Chicago. Betty died on 17 May 1999. Betty Robinson Schwartz who in 1928, as a 16-year-old high school junior became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. Betty suffered from cancer and Alzheimer's disease in recent years.

Betty's life story included prodiongious athletic glory, a life-threatening accident and an amazing Olympic comeback and sounded like the product of an overimaginative screenwriter.

Betty's career began when a high school teacher and assistant track coach in Harvey, Illinois, saw her running for a commuter train (the legend is that she caught it). Betty later ran 50 yards for him in a school corridor, and a track career began.

These were the nascent days of organized women's track and field at the national level. As she told The Los Angeles Times in 1984: ''I had no idea that women even ran then. I grew up a hick. That is when I found out that they actually had track meets for women.''

3 weeks after being discovered, Betty made her racing debut in a regional meet and finished 2nd to Helen Filkey, the United States record-holder at 100 meters. In her next meet, the Chicago-area Olympic trials, she equaled the world record of 12.0 seconds (the current world record is 10.49, set by Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988). In her third meet, the United States final trials in Newark, she finished 2nd and made the Olympic team.

In 1928, the year Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, female track and field athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The 1928 Amsterdam Games would mark the fourth meet of Betty's career, just 4 months after she took up the sport at age 16.

A week after qualifying for the Olympics, she and her teammates sailed to Amsterdam and worked out on a quarter-mile linoleum track laid around the ship's deck. In Amsterdam, she finished second in her trial heat and first in her semifinal and became the only American to reach the finals.

The finish was close in the finals, and the judges declared Betty the winner over the favored Fanny Rosenfeld of Canada in an official time of 12.2. Because the 100-meter race was the first of five women's track and field events at the 1928 Games, Betty Robinson Schwartz had won the 1st gold medal handed out in her sport.

''When the flag went up after the race,'' she said, ''I started crying like a baby.''

Rosenfeld and her Canadian teammates later defeated Betty Robinson Schwartz and the American team in the 4x100-meter relay, with the United States team taking the silver.

After Betty Robinson Schwartz won the gold, Douglas MacArthur, then the president of the American Olympic Committee, presented her with a small gold charm shaped like the world. When she returned home, she was honored by ticker-tape parades down Broadway in New York and State Street in Chicago. In her hometown, she received a diamond watch from an adoring public and a silver cup from her high school.

Betty Robinson Schwartz was still a world-class athlete when a biplane she was riding in with her cousin crashed near Chicago in 1931. Both survived, but Betty Robinson Schwartz spent 11 weeks in a hospital with severe head injuries and a broken leg and arm. A silver rod and pin were inserted to stabilize the leg, which was placed in a hip-to-heel cast. For 4 months, she was in a wheelchair or on crutches, and the leg became a 1/2" shorter.

''If I had not been in such good physical condition,'' she said, ''I would not have lived through it.''

As it was, she was out of competition for three and a half years. When she tried a comeback in 1936, she could not bend a knee, so she had to make a standing rather than a crouching start in the 100 meters. Still, she made the Olympic relay team, along with Harriet Bland, Annette Rogers and Helen Stephens. This time in Berlin, the American team -- with Betty Robinson Schwartz running the 3rd leg captured the gold when a member of the record-setting German team fumbled the baton pass before the last handoff. Betty Robinson Schwartz had completed an improbable comeback.

In 1939, she married Richard S. Schwartz, who owned an upholstery firm. They had 2 children.

Besides her son, she is survived by her daughter, Jane Hamilton of Denver, and 3 grandchildren.
Betty career included world records at 50, 60, 70 and 100 yards. Betty was inducted into the National Track and Field, the United States Track and Field and the Helms Halls of Fame. After she stopped running, she was a coach, timer and public speaker.

Betty never received the publicity and public adulation of such American successors as Babe Didrikson, Wilma Rudolph and Griffith Joyner. Years after her Olympic triumphs, she said: ''I suppose most Americans don't even recognize me. It happened so long ago I still can't believe the attention I get for something I did so long ago.''

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Dementia Series-Disabled Legend Arlene Francis

Arlene Francis, the witty actress and popular television personality, was born Arlene Francis Kazanjian on 20 October, 1907 in Boston, Massachusetts. Arlene's father was an Armenian immigrant, later painter and portrait photographer; her mother was the daughter of actor Alfred Davis. Even at an early age, Arlene said, "I started out with one goal: I wanted to be a serious actress." Arlene studied at the Theatre Guild and then went to Hollywood. Arlene's movie debut was in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), in which Bela Lugosi (often cast as a villain or mad scientist in many of his over 40 movies) tied her to an X-cross to extract her blood (trivia: Arlene and Bela were both born on Oct. 20). The live theater, however, was her first love, and she appeared in many plays. In 1935, she married movie executive Neil Agnew; they'd stay together for 10 years. Arlene made her Broadway debut in 1936 and had her first major role in "All That Glitters" two years later. Arlene appeared with Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of "Danton's Death" in 1938, and in "Journey to Jerusalem" in 1940. Arlene's big hit was "The Doughgirls" in 1942; it ran for 1-1/2 years. Arlene had auditioned for her first radio part at the same time she was getting started in the theater; she later recalled, "Radio came easily." In the 1940s, she played in as many as five radio serials a day.

Arlene married actor Martin Gabel in 1946 (he died in 1986), and they had a son, Peter. Arlene also was host of a radio dating show called "Blind Date," which was adapted to a TV series in 1949 ("Blind Date" (1949)), and she was the host (1949-1952). It was television that brought Arlene fame, and she became one of the highest-paid women in TV. Arlene was a permanent panelist on CBS' "What's My Line?" (1950) (a 'Mark Goodson (I)' -Bill Todman production) from 1950 through 1967 and continued as a panelist in a syndicated version that ran until 1975, thus being with the show for its entire 25-year run. Arlene was warm, witty and had a cute laugh and was always fashionably dressed. Arlene wore a diamond heart-shaped necklace, which started a fad. Arlene was still doing radio while on TV, and in 1960, she was the star of "The Arlene Francis Show," a daily interview show in New York, on WOR; it ran for 23 years. Arlene retired from show business after that and lived comfortably. Arlene was still giving interviews in 1991.

Arlene spent her last years living in San Francisco. Arlene died of cancer on Thursday 31 May 2001, in a Francisco hospital, at the age of 93. Arlene's many fans will miss her, Arlene was truly one of the greats.

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Disabled Legend- Ian Dury

Ian Dury May 12th, 1942 –March 27th, 2000

was an English Rock & Roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music. He was best known as founder and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads, though he began his musical career in pub-rock act in Kilburn and the High Roads.

Early Life

Ian Robin Dury was born at his parents' home at 43 Weald Rise, Harrow Weald, Harrow(although he often claimed that he was born in Upminster, Havering. He lived with the effects of Polio, which he contracted at the age of seven — very likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend-On-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. His 1981 song "Spasticus Autisticus", intended to mark the International Year of Disabled People, was banned by the BBC despite having been written by a disabled person. The lyrics were uncompromising:

So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in
So long have I been languished on the shelf
I must give all proceedings to myself

The song's refrain, "I'm spasticus, autisticus" was inspired by the response of the rebellious Roman Gladiators in the film Spartacus, who, when instructed to identify their leader, all answered, "I am Spartacus," to protect him.

Dury left the Royal Grammer School, High Wycombe at 16 to study at Walthamstow Art College. In 1964 he won a place at the Royal College of Art where he was taught by the eminent British artist Peter Blake and, in 1967, Dury himself started teaching art at various colleges in the south of England. When asked why he did not pursue a career in art, he once said, "I got good enough [at art] to realise I wasn't going to be very good."

Dury married his first wife Betty Rathmell in 1967 and they had two children, Jemima and Baxter, who is now also a recording artist (he is the author of the ballad "Cocaine Man"). They divorced in 1985 but remained on good terms. She died of cancer in 1994.

Kilburn and the High-Roads

Dury was inspired to form Kilburn and the High-Roads (a pun on the road in North London) in 1971 following the death of his hero Gene Vincent. Dury was vocalist and lyricist, co-writing with pianist Russell Hardy and later enrolling into the group a number of the students he was teaching at Canterbury School of Art, including guitarist Keith Lucas (who later became the guitarist for 999 under the name Nick Cash) and bassist Humphrey Ocean. Managed by Charlie Gillett and Gordon Nelki, The Kilburns found favour on London's Pub Rock circuit and signed to Dawn Records in 1974, but despite favourable press coverage and a tour opening for The Who, the group failed to rise above cult status. The group disbanded in 1975.

It was known for some time before his death that Dury had Cancer. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1996 and underwent surgery, but tumors were later found in his liver, and he was told that his condition was terminal. In 1998, his death was incorrectly announced on XFM radio by Bob Geldof, possibly due to hoax information from a listener. Upon hearing of his illness Dury took the opportunity to marry his girlfriend, Sculptor Sophy Tilson, with whom he had two children, Billy and Albert.

In 1999, Dury collaborated with Madness on their first original album in 14 years on the track "Drip Fed Fred". Suggs and the band cite him as a great influence. It was to be one of his last recordings.

Ian Dury & The Blockheads' last performance was a Charity concert in aid of Cancer Bacup on February 6 2000, at The London Palladium, supported by Kirsty Macoll and Phill Jupitus. Dury was noticeably ill and had to be helped on and off stage.

Dury died of metastatic Liver Cancer in 2000. One of his obituaries read: "one of few true originals of the English music scene". Meanwhile, he was described by Suggs, the singer with Madness, as "possibly the finest lyricist we've seen."

Dury's son, Baxter Dury, is also a singer. He sang a few of his father's songs at the wake after the funeral, and has released his own albums - Len Parrot's Memorial Lift and Floor Show.

In 2002, a musical bench was placed in Poet's Corner, near Pembroke Lodge, within Richmond Park, South-West London, being a favoured viewing spot of Dury's. This Solar Powered seat was intended to allow visitors to plug in and listen to eight of his songs as well as an interview, but has been subjected to repeated vandalisim.

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