[Editor: This article, by Gertrude Lawson, was published in the Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW), 6 July 1945.]
Yesterday
by Jim Donald
On May 23 a Mrs. Gertrude Cooper was buried at Kingswood, near Penrith.
In life Mrs. Cooper was a quiet, ordinary person, contented with her lot and happy in the goodwill of a small circle of friends and acquaintances.
Few outside that circle knew that she was born in the purple, of an honored name in our national history.
The dead woman was Henry Lawson’s sister and the last member of the family of brilliant Louisa Lawson, mother of the greatest literary genius this country has produced — and pioneer editress in the magazine field of Australian journalism.
Gertrude Cooper died a few days after the 78th anniversary of the birth of her gifted brother.
The elements provided a fitting orchestral overture and prophetic prelude at the rising of the curtain on the grim life drama of Henry Lawson.
He was born on a night of storm and tumult in a tent on a flood swept creek bank at Grenfell, on 17th June, 1867.
Thunder roared, lightning flashed, and the heavens wept while willing hands carried mother and new born babe to the safety zone of higher ground.
As it was at the beginning, so it continued unto the end.
Lawson’s life journey was stormy and tumultuous with heavy seas of poverty, neglect, non-appreciation, and adversity forever battering in its wake.
He found death a quiet haven and it has been left to posterity to chant the magnificent requiem of his literary glory.
Source:
Daily Mirror (Sydney, NSW), 6 July 1945, p. 10 (Late Final Extra edition)
Editor’s notes:
born in the purple = born into a royal family; born into an aristocratic, high-ranking, noble, or prominent family (derived from purple being regarded as a colour for the use of monarchs and emperors, especially regarding the Byzantine and Roman empires); the phrase is also rendered as “born to the purple”
See: 1) “Born in purple”, Artichaeology [Articles, History, Archaeology]
2) Christina Athanasiou, “Born in the purple: Τhe Ιmperial color of the Roman Empire”, Roman Empire Times, 11 March 2024
3) “Porphyrogennetos”, Dumbarton Oaks
4) “Born in the purple”, Wikipedia
editress = a female editor
purple = purple refers to someone of high position; traditionally, the colour purple was used by princes, monarchs, and emperors; purple clothing, material, or decorations indicative of, or regarding, the ruler of a land, kingdom, or empire (in other contexts “purple” may refer to something that is brilliant, ornate, or showy; a text that uses excessively ornate rhetoric or exaggerated literary devices; rude or shocking language)
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