By Brendan Rees
Tributes have flowed after one of Cranbourne biggest advocates, Elizabeth (Bette) Clydesdale, died aged 87.
Born on 19 June 1931, the youngest of four, to her parents Mabel and William Rose in East Malvern who built and ran a dairy in East Malvern called Cranbourne Dairy.
Bette attended Lloyd Street Central School and then MLC where she was House Sports Captain, played netball, competed in athletics and loved playing baseball.
After school, Bette and her sister Gwen worked at Harris and Horne, Chartered Accountants where Bette was described as “conscientious, willing and anxious to do good work.”
When she turned 18, Bette began dating “the boy across the road” named Greg Clydesdale.
Upon turning 21 on 19 of June, the couple married on 9 August 1952 before they moved to Geelong and had two children, Robyn and Cheryl. The family moved to Cranbourne after Greg was offered a job as a shire engineer where Greg Clydesdale Square would be later honoured in his name.
Bette and Greg had two more children while in Cranbourne, Ian and Karen.
Cheryl said family was always Bette’s number on priority: “She was a wonderful home manager, always there for us and provided us with a happy and loving home in Cranbourne.”
“She embraced the Cranbourne community. She was involved, on so many levels, with organisations and clubs. She was president of Cranbourne Netball Club and Tennis Club, a Girl Guide Commissioner, involved in the kindergarten, mother’s club, Rotary Inner Wheel, Amstel Golf Club, Neighbourhood House and later on the computer club,” she said.
Bette was involved in fundraisers including lamington drives with a group of women in Cranbourne who became her very good friends. She was also a member of the Positive Ageing Reference Group and participated in Painting with Parkinsons.
She was awarded a life membership with the Cranbourne Tennis Club, received the Rotary Paul Harris Fellow, and announced as the City of Casey Senior Citizen of the Year in 2012.
“Mum has passed this legacy on to all of us with our own involvement in our local communities,” Cheryl said.
City of Casey Mayor Amanda Stapledon paid tribute to Bette who she described as a “matriarch.”
“She was devoted to her family and to her community; reached out to others, helped so many, was a driver behind a petition for the Cranbourne bypass over 40 years ago, helped raise funds, and lobbied to build the Cranbourne Public Pool on Grant Street; then to ensure that the Warm Water Pool at Casey Race was made home to the Cranbourne Arthritis Group” she said.
“I like so many will miss Bette every day and for her service we say thank you from a grateful city.”
In the last 13 years of her life, Bette battled Parkinson’s disease but continued to live her life to the full.
She died at Arcare Malvern East Aged Care on Tuesday 30 October.
