Ivy Fry, nee Hender, grew up on a market garden in the bush at Heathfield. She was the second youngest of thirteen children and had several nieces and nephews who were older than her. Ivy's father died when she was five years old and her German mother 'went washing and ironing for the gentry' four days a week as well as raising two grandchildren and two State wards. Like her brothers and sisters, Ivy had daily chores on the family property and was often kept home from school to work. She left the local school at thirteen and when she was about sixteen took over her ailing mother's work. Then for seven years from the age of eighteen until her marriage in 1924 Ivy was the cook at Sir E C Stirling's Mount Lofty home, St Vigeans; a happy, relaxed household where she felt 'almost one of the family'. After two years of marriage Mrs Fry's husband's work took them to Norwood and her present home. Mrs Fry had one child, a daughter.

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