Professional ice skater Betty Sullock, daughter of Richard Basil J.G. Sullock and his wife Jean, was brought up in White Street, Coburg.
She learned to skate at Melbourne's Glaciarium (also known as The Glaci) at what is today's Southgate (near the State Theatre).
In September 1949, aged 23, Betty set off for England to skate at the Westover Ice Rink at Bournemouth during their summer season.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she skated in England, Sweden, France, Germany and Belgium and her speciality was pair and figure skating.
By the end of 1952 she was performing regularly in Australia - in Armand Perrn's 'Ice Follie' at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney and in the show 'Hot Ice' which toured Australia from September 1953 to June 1954. By then she was married to Ken Donaghue, a stage manager of Potts Point, Sydney. (His father Jim was also a stage manager and both men worked at some stage for the famous theatrical company J.C. Williiamson's.)
The couple lived in the Sydney area where they raised their family.
Betty Donaghue (nee Sullock), former Coburg resident and professional ice skater, died in NSW in November 2014 aged 88.
Sources:
Age, 8 April 1950
Argus, 5 May 1938
The Sun (Sydney), 7 January 1954
UK Outward Shipping records
Victorian electoral rolls
Ancestry family trees
State Library of Victoria picture collection
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