She was Kay Brown when she came with her family to Brogo where her father had bought a dairy.

Just 21, Kay had been happily employed in an aircraft factory in Sydney, when she came down for a weekend to spend with her family and was asked if she would like at job with the Bega Co-operative Society.

She agreed and joined the Co-op, the first outsider (not born and bred in the Valley) to work there.

When she was shown her office she was horrified at the straight wooden chairs the office girls were sitting at and asked for an office chair.

The chair was bought, but only for Kay, so she went back to the manager and told him that all the other girls had to have office chairs, and so, of course, the Co-op had no choice but to furnish the whole office appropriately.

Kay’s next job was with the Inspector of Schools in Rixon’s Arcade, but she also had to work for other government departments there such as the Department of Lands, Rural Youth, Child Welfare, and when she felt these public servants were out of line she told them so in no uncertain terms.

Over these years she was being courted by Colin Rogers of Kingswood and when they married she had to give up her job with the public service as the rule at the time was that the public service didn’t employ married woman.

Kay couldn’t change that so she settled down to life at Kingswood, doing the accounts, learning how to help on a beef farm, and learning how to stay on a horse.

With Colin she was very involved in Rural Youth.

As she started having children, Kay realised how little there was for parents in the Bega Valley, and she started stirring for a Bega Pre-School.

With other parents they fundraised with raffles, lamington drives etc and got the Pre-School up and running.

With the arrival of her third son she joined another group of mothers to start the first Bega Playgroup.

Having done what she could for the very young Kay now joined in an energetic campaign to raise funds and build a nursing home in Bega.

It was her mother-in-law, Mary Rogers, who started her interest in the nursing home, but once started Kay was among the most energetic and dedicated members of the Bega and District Nursing Home Auxiliary, an auxiliary that raised thousands of funds through catering for various functions.

Red Cross was another committee that Kay was on, and she is still the president of the Bega Red Cross.

She was one of those who helped save the Red Cross Heritage building when a developer wanted to raze it for a carpark.

The building has been saved for posterity with a Heritage Order.

Kay also started stirring when the Department of Education decided that children had to go to the schools in their zone, which meant that half of the pupils at Bega West would have had to transfer to Bega Primary and vice versa.

She had been told that the Department of Education never changed its mind, but it did after the protest Kay organised.

Another of her interests was NSW Farmers, being both secretary and president.

She has been on the executive of the Nursing Home auxiliary, the Bega Primary School Mothers’ Club and the Bega Primary P and C.

She was also elected to Bega Valley Shire Council in 1991, a forum where she could really stir, which she did until 1994.

Kay hasn’t stopped making a fuss when she thinks it necessary.

Her present gripe is the lack of resting stops for livestock transport drivers on the Princes Highway particularly between Nowra and the border, so everyone will be hearing more from Kay Rogers.