Rugby league super coach Jack Gibson must have found winning premierships a breeze after the challenge he faced to win the heart of Judy Worrad.
In 1954, she was a beautiful, young Bondi girl, who had been crowned Miss Bondi and Miss Pacific; he was from a poor family with a farmlet in semi-rural Caringah.
When he arrived an hour late for their first date, she told her parents, “tell him I’m out”.
He kept calling, and eventually convinced her to come outside, where she found his car bursting with flowers.
“There begins the beautiful love story that was Jack and Judy – mum and dad,” their daughter Sue Turner said at her mother’s funeral at St Aloysious Catholic Church, Cronulla.
Judy Gibson died on January 11 at the age of 82 after a long illness. Jack died in 2008.
The couple moved to Cronulla in 1955 where they raised six children, Sue,Tracey, Joanne, Luke, Matthew and John, and delighted in eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Their eldest son Luke suffered from schizophrenia and died at 25 from a heroin overdose, which resulted in their strong support for a range of organisations working in these areas.
Mrs Gibson also worked for her church, schools and Meals on Wheels.
Ms Turner said her mother’s ability to “run a busy household, with dad, six kids and a front door that rarely closed, with a revolving parade of friends, family and young footballers, made for a wonderful home”.
She was to us, her children, a rock, stoic and wise. Beautiful until the end.
- Sue Turner
“Mum lived a life with no gaps,” she said. “She took beautiful care of our brother Luke and of our dad.
“She adored her grandchildren and great grand children and she handled her personal challenges with grace and dignity. She was to us, her children, a rock, stoic and wise. Beautiful until the end.”
Mrs Gibson suffered from a blood disorder requiring regular blood transfusions, and was very grateful to blood donors
She cared deeply about the well-being of the players, but was not “the sporty type”.
In Ian Heads’s book, A Sporting Life, she wrote of her marriage: “I think one of the secrets of our long life together lies in the different roles we took and in the different directions our interests took us. I believe the sort of independence we‘ve had is healthy. As long as you end up in the same place...that’s what matters.”
