Phyllis Eleanor Tantrum, 92, died in Tauranga Hospital on November 9. Photo / Supplied
Phyllis Eleanor Tantrum, 92, died in Tauranga Hospital on November 9. Photo / Supplied
Phyllis Eleanor Tantrum's philosophy in life was "to live, to love and to laugh" and she will be remembered for doing so in spades right to the end.
The 92-year-old Pāpāmoa identity, medium, celebrant, country music entertainer and Dolly Parton impersonator, loved making people laugh and smile and was along-standing Papamoa Country Music Club member.
Her comedy-style shows included her rendition of Dolly's classic number Nine to Five while decked out in a platinum blonde wig, false eyelashes, beauty spot and pushed up cleavage.
Phyllis Tantrum would often transform herself into entertainer Dolly Parton. Photo / File
Phyllis was also known for parodying Bette Midler's well-known song, Pretty Legs and Great Big Knockers.
Born in Ōtāhuhu on September 4, 1928, she was one of four children of the late Cecil and Gertrude Jameson and spent her early years growing up in Levin.
Singing around the family piano as a young girl, Phyllis also loved marching, learned to tap dance and did burlesque shows, including entertaining a group of soldiers in 1947.
Her father, who worked at the local meatworks, and her grandfather were mediums too.
She and her late husband Jim Tantrum raised five children - David Tantrum, Kathleen Matwiv, Diane Ayling, Sandra Davenport and Valma Byrnes.
During the early days of their marriage, Phyllis worked as a nurses' assistant at Trevellyn Rest Home in Hamilton and the couple also owned Southern Cross Dairy.
In the 1980s Jim Tantrum, a fitter and welder, lost his eyesight after an explosion while welding a petrol tank which came off a 1927 Indian motorcycle.
Phyllis Eleanor Tantrum, 92, died in Tauranga Hospital on November 9. Photo / Supplied
Sandra Davenport, 61, said when her mother gave up nursing to care for their father and to help support the family she began working as a medium and spiritual healer.
Phyllis was regularly involved in lots of national and international medium workshops and speaking engagements and also featured on talkback radio in Hamilton for 11 years.
She also often travelled to Australia, Canada and Hawaii in pursuit of that work and in the early 1980s opened the Keeping in Touch Spiritual Church in Hamilton.
Davenport said her mother was so sought after as a medium she was often booked up for months in advance and had her own psychic reading and spiritual healing room at home.
Phyllis and her husband had been married for 47 years when he died in 1996.
Phyllis Eleanor Tantrum, 92, died in Tauranga Hospital on November 9. Photo / Supplied
She was also a celebrant who performed weddings, funerals and christenings all around New Zealand, including being the celebrant at a Black Power gang member's wedding.
"The wedding guests all loved her and even invited her to a stay for a beer. Mum didn't drink but it didn't matter as she just lapped up all the attention," Davenport said.
"Mum loved to be the centre of attention and the conversation and she was a great starter of many things. She was an absolute believer that if it was worth doing, just do it now.
"She was just a happy, loving, kind, open-minded, vivacious person and an amazing mother, who so much fun and real sassy. She loved to organise and micro-manage us all."
In her 80s, she found love again with Don Daines, a fellow member of Papamoa Country Music Club, and they were inseparable until his death in 2013.
Valma Brynes, 54, said at only 150cm tall her mother had a "larger than life" personality. and loved making people laugh.
"She brought joy and comfort to many, many people over the years and she was the most positive, happiest person I have ever known."
Brynes said she came back from Perth to care for her mother full-time after she had a cancerous growth removed from one of her breasts in September.
"Unfortunately mum then suffered a stroke and a brain bleed which left her almost totally blind. She then got a bad chest infection which developed into pneumonia.
"Yet she never once complained ... Unfortunately, mum had another bad turn and she died in Tauranga Hospital on November 9."
Brynes said despite how ill she was, her mother was still doing psychic readings for the nursing staff and making them laugh just days before she died.
"We loved her to bits and couldn't have asked for a better mother, supporter and role model. We all miss her terribly," Brynes and Davenport said.
Papamoa Country Music Club president Dick Ward said Phyllis was a "right character" and loved past president, vice-president and committee member for many years.
"Phyllis was a hard case. She was very entertaining, so funny, and just an amazing person and she always a great supporter of our club.
"If you never got to meet Phyllis, then you have missed out on knowing one of life's very special characters. Our club is not the same without her."
Phyllis is also survived by her siblings Alan and Beverly, and a much-loved nana, great nana, great-great nana and aunt to many.
A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held at the Gordon Spratt Recreation Centre in Pāpāmoa at 2pm on December 5.
