Tribute to Evelyn Tull October 31, 2016 Page 1 Sue Thompson
Tribute to Evelyn Tull October 31, 2016
On behalf of all the members of the Lilydale & District Historical Society I thank the family for giving me the honour of paying tribute to our much loved and valued Life Member Evelyn Tull.
Evelyn joined our society on February 13, 1992, I think at the insistence of her cousin Daisy Chapman. From that first day, Evelyn was active in everything we did. She always attended our meetings and actively participated in discussions.
When at the old museum, on meeting days it was not unusual for Evelyn to arrive in her white croquet uniform as she didn’t want to miss what was going on. Afterwards it was back to the croquet green and her game.
From the start, Evelyn bought her own perspective on things and many was the time she and Daisy would have a long discussion about this person and that person, who married who etc. Often the discussion was stopped by Daisy who simply said: “Yes but Evelyn you didn’t live in Lilydale, you lived out of town.”
On June 4, 1994 Evelyn joined our committee and remained a member until her death. Life Membership was conferred on Evelyn in 2008. She spoke to me about stepping down last year and again this year but I wouldn’t let her because of the knowledge and perspective she brought to every discussion. She used the excuse she couldn’t hear so couldn’t contribute which we soon fixed with new microphones and checked she could actually hear.
Since moving into the Old Lilydale Courthouse Evelyn and I did duty together each month. Always I asked how she was when she arrived and always the response was the same: Okay I’m still here with a twinkle in her eye. Her next statement was also predictable: ‘What work have you got for me today?”
That was Evelyn: she didn’t want to sit around and chat about the weather – she was on duty and was there to work. There is so much I could say but I will limit myself to two short stories:
When the Yarra Ranges Museum told us there was no room for us in the new museum we organized to get our files from them but couldn’t convince them many of the library books were also ours donated to us over the years. Evelyn took on the job of proving the books were ours by going through our Minute books from 1971 to the current time page by page and listing every book donated to us. It took months but thanks to Evelyn’s meticulous work we got all our reference books back when the list was given to the museum.
Each year, we have up to 200 school children descend on us for heritage activities. We put out a lot of items for the children to touch and use. Evelyn who actually used most of the household equipment, was invaluable as she could tell the children how she used each one. However it was her stories of her schooldays at Lilydale Primary School that captivated the children.
They couldn’t get over the fact that Evelyn walked 4 miles a day to and from school barefoot.
“We hated shoes and took them off as soon as we got out of mum’s sight and didn’t put them back on until at the front gate of the school.”
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Evelyn and I spent hours planning the display board which is still up at the Old Lilydale Court House featuring her home, its layout and what was in it from the tin bath, dunny down the back, water tank, wood pile, copper and radio. I had to re-do the drawing several times as I didn’t quite have things in the right place – that was Evelyn – everything had to be in the right place.
Finally, Evelyn did an amazing amount of work on our ANZACS project. She took work sheets home and spent many hours writing up the details of our soldiers and of course of the Goodall boys who will be featured in the display opening later this month.
Evelyn will be sorely missed by our society but her contribution will live on in the Lilydale community which she loved so much.