When Lorna Morris joined the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2019, she was inducted in the “Trailblazer” category.

At the time, the much-loved Numurkah elder told the Numurkah Leader that she didn’t see herself as a trailblazer, or indeed anything special — rather just a mother doing what had to be done.

“What had to be done” was anything but ordinary.

Back in 1967, Lorna was 39 with five children — the youngest just five months old — when her husband Brian, proprietor of The Leader, died suddenly.

He was two weeks short of his 49th birthday.

Lorna had been seriously ill during her last pregnancy, spending much of it at the Mercy in Melbourne, so was still recovering and “hadn’t been down the street yet.”

She and Brian had borrowed to buy the company from their family and were heavily in debt.

With no experience running a business, little money and a Year 10 education, Lorna said she had no alternative but to learn how to run a newspaper and make a go of it.

How did she manage to do that?

“With great difficulty,” she told historian Rod Kirkpatrick.

“I went to work the next day, before his funeral even.

“I had a staff who didn’t know whether they had jobs.

“Nobody believed that I would be able to keep the paper running and I probably didn’t either.

“Another paper came along and offered a price less than our debt.

“So I had to keep going.”

In her book, To The Leader Born, Lorna wrote: “I wasn’t allowed the luxury of wallowing in grief and self pity for long — I had five children to feed and clothe and a business which had meant so much to Brian, to run.”

“I thought I was drowning, but walking away and giving up wasn’t an option,” she later told the Leader.

Lorna was the first female proprietor of a newspaper in Victoria and recounted entering a room full of 200 men at the Victorian Country Press Association conference, where silence descended as she entered.

“I’m sure they could tell how intimidated I was by the look on my face, but I had decided I needed to be there, so I just held my head up and found a place to sit.”

More challenges followed.

Her father died a month after her husband Brian, her mother five months later.

In the meantime, some staff members left because they didn't want to work for a woman and she had to find others.

“I learned very quickly that the toilet was the only place I could cry without being discovered by one of the children, and if I was too long, there was a knock on the door to see if I was alright.”

“The people of Numurkah were very good to me,” Lorna said, and gradually she learned the role of managing editor, reduced the debt and dealt with the regular dramas of being a publisher, including libel actions and unruly staff.

On April 8, 1987, disaster struck once more when fire destroyed the Leader building in the early hours; Lorna recalled how she heard the siren at 4am and, having the brigade’s silent number, called it — but her phone was an extension from the office and had gone dead.

“I set out to drive to the office to get a camera. I never got there. By the time I reached the Post Office, I knew it was the Leader building.”

Again, Lorna met the moment.

The building was cleared, rebuilt and operational within eight weeks, without missing a single issue of the paper.

She eventually retired in 1998 after 31 years as managing editor, handing control to three of her five children – Tony, Terry and Beverly.

Lorna had more time to devote to her sport: at school, she had played tennis, netball, hockey and cricket.

She continued with tennis and netball, and added badminton, took up golf at 55 and later added bowls.

She won club championships or best and fairest awards in all of these sports but bowls.

In her eulogy for her mum, Bev said that, despite being an avid golfer, “Mum soon decided she needed something more in her life. She completed a Diploma of Pastoral Formation with the Diocese of Sandhurst, and then decided to apply for a volunteer role with the Victorian Court Network, an organisation providing support to anyone appearing before the court, whether they were the accused, the accuser, the victim, a witness or family members.”

Lorna journeyed to Melbourne a day a week for three and a half years as a court volunteer and went on to speak widely on the subject, while continuing to look after elderly neighbours and family who needed it.

Helping others and her contributions to the community led to many honours and awards: Lorna received a Centenary Medal in 2003; she carried the Queen’s baton on its way to the Commonwealth Games in 2005, she was Numurkah’s Citizen of the Year in 2007 and received an Order of Australia Medal in 2008. And, in 2017, she joined the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

In the meantime, she attacked life with trademark energy and gusto, parasailing in Bali, climbing volcanoes in Vanuatu, mountain bike-riding down Mt Buller and climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Four bouts of cancer from her early 80s were Lorna’s final challenge — but she met them with determination too, and continued her regular visits to the hairdressers and her meals with friends at The Telegraph and the golf club until a few months ago.

Former MLA for Shepparton, Jeanette Powell, a friend, described Lorna as “strong, resilient, brave, competitive, determined, loyal and loving.”

“She had strong faith, loved her family, her friends, her community and her sport. And she was a great storyteller!”

Trailblazer indeed.

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Thursday, 11th May 2028

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