Feature Story

WHO ARE OUR FAMOUS LIONS?

From an Australian politician much in the news recently to an astronaut, a Royal and a string of American Presidents, there are many well known identities who have taken the Lions oath.

Tony Fawcett takes a nostalgic trip back through the records.

Do you know what medical missionary Dr Albert Schweitzer, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, actress Patty Duke, Mt Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, the Queen’s daughter-in-law Sophie Countess of Wessex and Louie the Fly all have in common?

Of course you do.

Lions Clubs International.

With the exception of Louie the Fly, all are or have been members of Lions Clubs.Instantly recognisable and admired for

work in their diverse fields, along with more than a million perhaps not so well known but just as dedicated Lions, they are part of our great international service organisation.So what’s the story with Louie the Fly, the iconic anti-hero of so many Mortein insect-spray commercials? I knew you would ask about this piece of Lions trivia.Well, the first Louie the Fly jingle was recorded in 1964 by a long-time Lion, PDG Neil Williams, a singer and for many years a favourite on early Australian TV variety shows.Recipient of an OAM and a member of the Australian Lions Foundation Hall of Fame, he is still remembered by many older Lions for promoting youth projects and singing the praises of Lion Mints with a line-up of dancing girls at Lions conventions.A Lion for more than 30 years, Neil gave his name to an Australian Lions Childhood Cancer Research Foundation award, the Neil Williams Memorial Award.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk … Lions runs in her family. Picture: Facebook

Meet the FamousThere have been many famous Lions over the organisation’s 104-year history.As we leave behind one of our most challenging years, join me in a not-too-serious name-drop look at some of them, past and present.Not surprisingly the majority hail from the birthplace of Lions, the U.S.They vary from presidents, performers and patriots to sporting greats. For some, membership was or is honorary, while others, such as former American President Jimmy Carter, were or are full-on meeting-attending Lions.Just a few include:• American baseballer Babe Ruth (aka

“The Sultan of Swat”)• Heavyweight Boxer Jerry Quarry• Polar explorer and pioneer aviator

Admiral Richard Byrd• Aviator Amelia Earhart, the first female

to fly solo across the Atlantic Both of America’s Bush Presidents – George H W and George W – held honorary Lions membership, while HARRY S TRUMAN was a Kansas City Lion in Missouri, RONALD REAGAN was a life member of the Dixon Noon Lions Club in Illinois and GERALD FORD belonged to the Grand Rapids Lions Club of Michigan.

Home GrownYet for our population and shorter Lions history, Australia does reasonably well.In the news recently and proud of her Lions background is Queensland’s 39th Premier ANNASTACIA PALASZCZUK.Her German-born Polish father Heinrich (or Henry Palaszczuk) not only preceded her as the member for south-west Brisbane’s Legislative Assembly seat of Inala but was also a Lion, a member of the Forrest Hill club.While politics now consume much of her life, the Queensland Premier maintains honorary membership and always makes time to attend Inala’s changeover dinners at the Blue Fin Fishing Club of which she is a member and, not coincidentally, where she celebrated her party’s re-election victory last year. “We’re very pleased to have a Premier among our ranks,” confides

ABOVE: Flashback … Australian Lions Foundation Hall of Fame member and OAM recipient Neil Williams appearing on an early TV program.

RIGHT: Louie the Fly … the first Mortein jingle immortalising this pest was sung

Inala President Les Josiah, adding that his club is also home to federal member MILTON DICK, the member for Oxley in the Australian House of Representatives. Another pollie proud of his Lions background is high profile BOB KATTER, federal member for Kennedy in North Queensland. Starting as a Queensland politician, Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter formed his own party, Katter’s Australian Party, in 2011, and is a member of the Charters Towers club.A member for about 50 years, he has in the past happily donated his trademark Akubra

hat for auction for a good Lions cause.Still in North Queensland and politics, the Mareeba Club lays claim to former Mareeba mayor MICK BORZI AM OBE, a foundation member and a proud Lion for 62 years. While he has given much to Lions over that time, holding positions of President, Zone Chairman and District Governor, this son of Italian migrants credits Lions with empowering him at age 25 to speak in public. As he has said in the past, “being involved with Lions gave me the confidence in life like nothing else ever has, so much so I believe it was my involvement with the organisation that gave me the foundation to seek public office”.Equally long serving is former federal MP and current mayor of Sydney’s Hornsby PHILIP RUDDOCK AO, who took his Lions oath in Parramatta soon after being elected to the House of Representatives at a by-election for the local seat.Away from politics, several Australian men of medicine have spent time in Lions.Not only is immunologist PROFESSOR IAN FRAZER, a developer of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, a former Lions Medical Research Foundation Fellow, for a time he was a member of Brisbane Inner West Lions.And for four years from 2016, PROFESSOR PETER BLAMEY whose research with others led to the development of the bionic ear, was President of Victoria’s Balla Balla Lions Club.

Vice-Regal PatronsAlthough not always paid up members, Australia’s Governors and Governors-General have a rich history of Lions membership and patronage.Probably best known in this category to

many Australians of the period was “the Lithgow Flash” MARJORIE JACKSON, the first Australian female runner to break a world record and the first Australian to win an Olympic track and field gold medal.

Long-time Lion and politician Bob Katter … for a good Lions cause, he’s been known to auction one of his iconic Akubra hats. Picture: Facebook

LEFT: Most Australians knew her as world record-breaking athlete Marjorie Jackson but in later years she was both a Governor of South Australia and an honorary Lion.

As Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE, Governor of South Australia (2001-2007), she took the Lions oath as an honorary member of that state’s Edwardstown club.Going up in vice-regal standing, Lions Australia’s past national patron was Governor-General SIR PETER COSGROVE AK MC (Retd), a Military Cross winner, and current Australian Governor-General, 42-year military veteran GENERAL DAVID HURLEY AC DSC (Retd) is today our patron, a position he shares with his wife Mrs Linda Hurley.

A Right Royal LionMarried into the House of Windsor and possibly better known as the wife of Prince Edward and the Queen’s daughter-in-law, SOPHIE, COUNTESS OF WESSEX belongs to the approximately 30-member Wokingham Lions Club in Berkshire west of London.The daughter of a sales director and a charity worker/secretary, she closed her PR business in 2002 to become a fulltime member of the Royal Family, devoting much of her life to charities involved with disabilities, gender-based violence, avoidable blindness and agriculture. Recently dubbed “the Royal Family’s secret

weapon” following the exit from “the firm” of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, she is a Melvin Jones Fellowship recipient and patron of Lions Clubs of the British Isles.In 2018 she hosted a royal reception for hundreds of Lions at Buckingham Palace to celebrate our “Century of Service”.

High Achieving Lion

He made history by conquering Mt Everest with Tenzing Norgay in 1953, but after 10 years of adulation SIR EDMUND HILLARY thought it time to give more back to his community, and Lions seemed the obvious way.Introduced to Lions by a family lawyer, the modest mountaineer, a one-time beekeeper, became a member of inner suburban Auckland club Remuera and, between visits to Nepal and Tibet to help build hospitals and schools for locals, regularly returned to New Zealand for Lions projects and to inspire fellow members.

And higher stillLike Sir Edmund, Switzerland’s first astronaut, CLAUDE NICOLLIER, decided it was time to pay back to his fellow man in 1999 after his final mission and 42 days (including an eight-hour walk) in outer space. He did it by joining his local Montreux Lions Club. Dual Lions linkApart from being a Lion, long-time and now departed American actress PATTY DUKE boasted the connection of having portrayed great Lions inspiration and supporter Helen Keller, both on stage and

The Queen’s daughter-in-law, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, belongs to the approximately 30-member Wokingham Lions Club in Berkshire west of London.

With sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary in 1953 became the first to conquer Mt Everest, then a decade later returned to homeland New Zealand and became a Lion.

in the movie The Miracle Worker, a role that won her an Academy Award. The role came when Duke, the daughter of an alcoholic father and a depression-suffering mother prone to violence, was just 15.She was a member of the Coeur d’Alene Lions Club in Idaho. Helen Keller herself was an honorary Lion.

A Lion of a LionFor former U.S. President JIMMY CARTER, who has served as both a District Governor and Council Chairperson, Lions has been a passion since 1953 when he joined the club where his father was a charter member. A member of the Plains Lions Club in

Georgia and recipient of the Lions Clubs International Humanitarian Award, he has worked tirelessly with LCIF through his humanitarian Carter Centre, founded by he and his wife Rosalynn in 1982, in fighting trachoma and wiping out river blindness.

A little Lions UFO triviaInterestingly and a little off track, it was an event just before Jimmy Carter gave a speech as district governor at a Lions Club meeting in 1969 that saw him become a witness in a UFO investigation.Along with other Lions, he witnessed in the night sky a bright white object that first appeared to be coming toward him before stopping and changing colour from white, to blue, to red and then back to white before disappearing into the distance.An amateur astronomer, he would later say that in future he would “never make fun of people who say they’ve seen unidentified objects in the sky”.Later it was speculated Carter’s Lions night UFO might have been glowing chemical clouds produced by rockets launched from a rocket range.

FOOTNOTE: While there are numerous famous Lions out there, thankfully you don’t need to be famous to be a Lion.

LEFT: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter … he credits Lions with changing his life, and along the way in partnership with Lions he has changed the lives of many others.

ABOVE: A young Patty Duke with Lions icon Helen Keller about the time of filming of movie The Miracle Worker.