June Dally-Watkins, affectionately known as Australia’s queen of etiquette and deportment, has died peacefully at the age of 92.
Per a statement from her family, the businesswoman and beloved former model passed away on Saturday night, with her loved ones by her side.
Born in 1927, June Dally-Watkins was one of Australia’s most photographed models throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1950, she established her eponymous school in Sydney, with the goal of training young women in etiquette, elocution and deportment.
She later established Australia’s first modelling agency and school, and a business college.
June Dally-Watkins was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993, and was named as a National Treasure and one of our nation’s 100 Living Legends.
She published her autobiography The Secrets Behind My Smile in 2002. The book was described as:
“… the moving account of an illegitimate country girl’s amazing journey from the bush to the catwalk, from country New South Wales to a Hollywood poolside party for Marilyn Monroe, from a fatherless childhood to a romance with Gregory Peck off the set of Roman Holiday.”
