Mary Margaret Matthew, the oldest of seven children, was born in the same house in Mitcham that her mother had been born in. Margie's father was a bricklayer/builder but during the Great War he supported the family by cutting and selling wood. Margie's was a busy childhood of household responsibilities, walks in the district, and school and piano lessons at St Joseph's, Kingswood. She left school when she turned fifteen and worked for a year at Gilbert's Floral Store in the City. In 1925 she began working as a telephonist at the Central Exchange in the Adelaide GPO and learned the skills and discipline of this exacting profession. Within three years in the late 1920s Miss Matthew's grandfather, father and younger sister died and the family became reliant upon her wages and government relief. Miss Matthew remained in the Telephone Department until her retirement in 1974.

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