OBITUARY: Lois Vancam

Residents on the Stamford Estate were saddened to learn of the sudden death of Lois Vancam on Tuesday 9 September at her home in Hillview Avenue.
Lois was a well-known identity from the early days of housing development in Rowville and she was a much loved “lollipop” lady who endeared herself to generations of children whom she safely escorted across Stud Road over 19 years. “She was Mum to everybody. She spoke to everyone and all the kids loved her.” Alice Donato, who shared the school crossing duties with Lois over many years, spoke of Lois as “my best and truest friend”.
Lois and her husband Ray were among the first buyers on the Stamford Estate and helped out the estate’s colourful developer, “Wish Drummond”, at the opening of his Stamford Hotel on 23 October 1959. Lois was employed by “Wish” as the very first receptionist at the Stamford and she loved working there.
Lois was born Lois White in 1931, the seventh child in a family of nine living in Preston.
She first came to know Ray when she was working as a telephonist at the Melbourne Telephone Exchange in 1947. Ray was in the Signals Corps of the RAAF stationed at Mont Albert and Laverton and in the late night shifts the signallers and the telephonists would chat over the phone. This was how Lois and Ray got to know each other and they spent many hours on the phone before they ever met face to face.
Ray and Lois were married in Coburg in December 1949 and lived initially at the RAAF base at Laverton and later in Brighton and Mordialloc.
One day as they were driving over to Ferntree Gully to attend a picnic they noticed a sign in Stud Road advertising the “Stamford Heights Estate” and stopped to look through the two display homes in Stamford Crescent. Eventually they bought their unserviced block in Hillview Avenue for 500 pounds and moved into their new home on the weekend prior to the opening of the Stamford Hotel.
Ray and Lois had many joys and sadnesses in their life together in Rowville. Their joys were the births of their five sons as well as the great friendships they made with their growing numbers of neighbours on the estate. Their sadnesses included being burgled of all their possessions shortly after moving into their new home and the tragedy of the death of their second son, Jonathon, at the age of four.
The strength of Ray and Lois’s love for each other and for their family saw them through the hard times, and all who know them recognise the great devotion they had for each other throughout their marriage of almost 54 years.
Lois is survived by her husband Ray, sisters Norma, Val and Marie, brother Vic, sons and daughters-in-law, Jamie, Peter and Angie, Simon and Kim and Robbie and Kate and grandchildren Mathew, Michael and Robin.
Bryan Power

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