Things got a little looser in the 1970s, perhaps in reaction to the end of Dekyvere’s iron-fisted reign, like the time the late Lady Susan Renouf and the late Lady Sonia McMahon dressed up as Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe performing Just Two Little Girls from Little Rock from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Putting money where their mouths are, Joshua and Linda Penn are the current co chairs of the Gold Dinner Committee.
Another year saw the ball’s scantily clad committee members perform a jaunty rendition of Take Back Your Mink from Guys and Dolls. This may seem unthinkable in 2023, although the current chair of the Silver Committee Maree Andrews did throw a “Dark, Dangerous and Decadent” themed 40th birthday party last year which saw guests turn up in lacy lingerie.
Charity Queens of Vaucluse from left: Marly Boyd, Alina Barlow, Sarah Carroll, Terry Biviano, Maree Andrews, Sophie CurtisCredit: Instagram
Needless to say, a position on Sydney’s more exclusive charity committees is a one-way ticket to social cache, as it was for Dekyvere, who was appointed MBE in 1958, and elevated to CBE in 1972 in recognition of service to the visually impaired.
The late media mogul Sir Frank Packer even convinced her to write a weekly column for his Sunday Telegraph.
Not dissimilar to Wipfli’s current-day Instagram feed, which has been flooded with her famous mates and envious life, Dekyvere delivered “My Week”, giving readers a look into the social life of Sydney’s elites, from visiting celebrities to the antics of her two poodles, Gigi and Jean.
Arabella Gibson, CEO of the Gidget Foundation.
While the Black & White Committee still exists, philanthropy has morphed into a much more diverse concern, raising funds for myriad causes like the Two Good Co, which started out in a soup kitchen and now aims to empower vulnerable women in refuges, giving them a practical pathway out of domestic violence to independence.
Others have embraced professional management, such…
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