Verna Hocking, formerly Champion, nee Bartlett, was born in Murray Bridge. She was the oldest of ten children but her grandmother also lived with the family and eased Verna and her mother's load. Between 1912 and 1916 the family lived in Adelaide where Verna's parents managed the Duke of York and then the King of Hanover hotels. The family returned to work a family farm outside Murray Bridge but were 'pushed off' after the war to make way for a returned soldier relative. Verna's father turned to labouring work before taking up dairying. Meanwhile Verna decided to leave school at fourteen and had a series of jobs as domestic/shop girl before her marriage in 1926, aged eighteen, to a hairdresser. Her first two daughters were born before 1930. Verna was to divorce her husband in 1939. She remarried in 1943 and had another two daughters.

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