Loyal reader set subscription record

LOYAL: Avis O'Neale, Wairarapa Times-Age's most loyal reader, has died.

The most loyal reader in the history of the Wairarapa Times-Age, Avis O'Neale, has died at the grand old age of 104.

Mrs O'Neale, from Featherston, died on Wednesday, bringing to a close an association with the newspaper that dates back to its very beginnings.

She subscribed to the newspaper on April 1,1938, the day of the first edition following an amalgamation of two daily papers to become Wairarapa Times-Age and received every edition until she died.

For the last few months of her life Mrs O'Neale had received the paper without charge in recognition of her unbroken loyalty to the newspaper.

Interviewed when she turned 104 Mrs O'Neale said she liked reading the back page sports news and took a special interest in the weather map "just in case I have to take a trip into town."

The sports reports were of special significance because Mrs O'Neale was a devotee of golf, and a handy golfer in her own right. She played regularly, and competitively until she was "well over retirement age."

As a woman who could remember life on her parents' Featherston farm (her maiden name was Benton) prior to World War I Mrs O'Neale often joked she had bought enough copies of the Times-Age to finance a world trip.

She long outlived her husband Eric, who was a well-known Featherston joiner, and is survived by her son Barry, his wife Julia, five grandchildren and also great grandchildren.