Community & Business
23 August, 2023
Vale Jackie Gallagher
Jacqueline Mary Gallagher (nee Ryan) was born in Aramac in 1925.
She always saw herself as a child of the western plains and starry skies.
At four years of age she saw the Morning Star ‘so bright against the Milky Way in that blue-black night sky. Later, she herself, was to shine in her professional field.
Jackie spent most of the last 37 years in Allora, a village she already knew.
She visited here several times as a young bride. Her husband Reg, a stock and station agent brought her to meet good friends, the Donovans.
In Allora, Jackie made many friends through the various clubs and organisations to which she belonged. The Dante Book Club was the highlight of her social life in later years providing wonderful friendship and the joy of literary discussion.
Jackie had a strong association with The Catholic Church. Her knowledge of liturgy, theology and church history was formidable.
She was a superb seamstress making sets of beautiful vestments in parishes where she lived.
The Southern Downs and its chilly weather was first experienced by Jackie as a very young teacher at Bapaume in a one-teacher school.
She had great affection for the people she knew and the children she taught but cold defeated her and she took a position as The Assistant Shire Clerk for the Banana Shire Council based in Biloela near her family.
In 1953, a widowed Jackie moved to Brisbane with her young family having lost her beloved Reg after only three and a half years of marriage. Initially, she worked at Cloudland Ballroom, Bowen Hills as secretary to the owner, a Biloela friend. She travelled on the train each day with a woman and her intellectually handicapped daughter who went to a special school in Bowen Hills. Jackie was impressed by the education this child was receiving and decided to upgrade her teaching qualifications and to work in special education. This field became her vocation and directed her life until retirement.
Jackie graduated from the University of Qld with qualifications pertaining to practical work in institutions, and the psychology and education of intellectually handicapped children. Fred (later Sir Fred) and Dr Eleanor Schonell were her mentors and became firm friends.
Jackie, with Fred and Eleanor Schonell and the people the latter trained, were leaders in a movement to offer new horizons for these children.
Jackie advised authorities and became the principal of an innovative school for children housed in the wards at Wolston Park, then at Sandy Galop, Ipswich as well as at Southport.
She also worked as a teacher at The Children’s Hospital, Brisbane and W. R. Black Home at Chelmer. Advocacy for the mentally ill was another focus in her life.
In 1967 Jackie was awarded a Churchill Fellowship which allowed her to travel to many countries and exchange skills with her peers.
Jackie Gallagher’s legacy stands as a beacon of education and compassion.
Her life’s trajectory, from gazing at stars to guiding young minds, resonates as a testament to her unwavering dedication to improving the lives of people with intellectual handicap, mental illness and their parents and families.
Marie Gallagher Campbell
(daughter)
