In Memory of
Betty Elliott
04 . 03 . 1932 – 14 . 04 . 2022
A Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving for the Life of Betty Margaret Eliiott was held in The Chapel of H. D. Tribe Ltd, Shoreham-by-Sea. This was well attended by many friends and colleagues including several Old Wickers. The ‘Memories of Betty’ included the following from a past Wick Chairman and a former Treasurer Barrie Bowen who gave the following tribute :-
“Betty, or may I say as a once-upon-a-time fellow thespian recalling one of her most memorable characterisations, our surrogate Aunt Edie, was, unlike that somewhat befuddled character, always a positive, forthright, optimistic and truly lovely person. She was blessed with an endearing sense of humour and articulate communication ever ready to express itself and lift the hearts of those fortunate to be in her company either socially, whenever there was a team endeavour to accomplish, or just providing a personal message befitting the moment. Betty could always see the winning post and the best route there. I never saw her waver even on the occasions we met in recent years and it was obvious the pains of aging were beginning to accumulate.
My own son and daughter have fond memories of her gentleness, kindness, and encouraging instruction during their early years at the nearby St Nicolas and St. Mary School and I have no doubt they are among many ex-pupils who must feel the same.
In her earlier years, Betty, appeared locally in over thirty stage productions, nine of which I was fortunate to share the stage with. She clearly had a passion for the art. Her acting range covered the spectrum from tragedy through to high comedy with equal and consummate skill. For the latter, she possessed a rare and unforgettable comedic ability that expressed itself as actor, director and also as a creative writing contributor to several satirical productions.
I highlight three of her contrasting achievements :-
As Nora Maloy she could dote compellingly on a braggart vain husband who showed her no warmth or affection in Eugene O’Neill’s Irish tragedy of A Touch of the Poet, or dominate as the bumble-headed Madame Arcati, the eccentric psychic medium of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit with equal skill and conviction. As one local critical reviewer of the day wrote, “She completely lived the part, and whether going off into a trance or enthusing about her bicycle, convinced us that here was not merely an actress but a living character she carried along triumphantly to the final scene”.
Even slapstick would not evade her range by falling back first and disappearing into a bulk cereal carton leaving just her feet in view with what can only be described as brave and genius athletic timing coupled with a sense of the ridiculous in Philip King’s Sailor Beware.
Neither in the same play can I forget her clownish comedy throwing repeated fits of near hysterical angst towards an imperious and forbidding sister-in-law she was always brilliantly and gibberingly getting on the wrong side of, or being overcome as a once jilted aging spinster mistakenly swooning over the improbable overtures of an able seaman four decades her junior and planning to become her nephew-in-law, as in her beloved Aunt Edie characterisation.
Her sense of comedy and timing even when repeated in the same character years apart as it was on several separate occasions was masterful and lost none of its initial spontaneity and impact. Many were the occasions I have enjoyed the severe pain of helpless aching laughter she caused me to endure in rehearsal and performance even though time and again I knew what was coming!
Betty retired from acting over 33 years ago but in 2017 recreated her Sailor Beware role once more in a special memorial for a fellow actor and mutual friend who had played the aforesaid domineering sister-in-law. Such was her ability to reprise her unforgettable Aunt Edie it is hard to believe that 33 years of acting abstinence and 38 years from last playing the highlighted role separated those performances. Betty’s glass was always more than half full – would that one could know precisely which well she plumbed for refills.
Ray Hopper writing for the Wick’s June 2022 Newsletter said:
” We have also found amongst Betty Dawes’ papers a cutting from the Brighton and Hove Herald dated 1954, by their theatre correspondent Thalia. It details an interview with the then 24 year old Betty Elliott, or Gedge as she then was. It is too detailed to add to this piece [in the Newsletter] but our archivist has scanned the article and inserted below, together with an article that appeared in the local press following Betty death.
If I can just add a couple of personal reminiscences. I first met Betty in my very first part with the Young Wick in 1957’s hilarious farce The Happiest Days of Their Life, in which she played the formidable headmistress Miss Whitchurch. However I remember her most fondly, as do others, as the batty Aunt Edie in our various joyous productions of Sailor Beware and Watch it Sailor. I was however, horrified to find that our archive had listed her character in the 1979 version as “Aunt Eddie”, but before remonstrating with our archivist I thought I’d better check the original programme, and there was “Aunt Eddie” again. I must have read this programme dozens of times before I noticed it. I’m sure Betty would have been equally brilliant as Eddie or Edie!
We enjoyed a most unusual and joyful funeral, entirely conducted by Betty’s eldest son and daughter Mark and Jane. In addition to family tributes and the one from Barrie detailed above, we also heard a tribute from her colleague at St. Nic’s school, plus an example of Betty’s poetry and some favourite music. The ceremony closed, at Betty’s request, with a rendition of Patricia the Stripper!
We all left feeling that a full life had been well celebrated”
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