Larger than life leading lady on stage and television. Familiar  to Kiwi viewers on television shows such as Close to Home, Pukemanu and later in Australia on the  The Flying Doctors. Active on stage until failing eyesight in her early seventies forced her to retire from the profession. 

Her autobiography Happy Days in Muckle Flugga was published by HarperCollins in 1998

She received the OBE in 1980 and was created Dame of the British Empire in 1993.