The White Witch of Alice Springs

Although her sense of humour- like her agelessly sexy voice – was always slightly wicked, Teddy Cairns’ altar ego as the White Witch of Alice Springs suited her perfectly.

.She cast a gentle spell over those who came into contact with her, whether as the white witch who delighted children in numerous Alice Springs street parades, or “the entertainer” who specialised in Sinatra in her long-running community radio show for Alice’s 8CCC. A group of friends and fans today joined her son Kim in saying goodbye to Teddy, who died at the age of 88 last month.

I had the pleasure of talking to Teddy about her life for ABC Radio Alice Spring seven or eight years years ago. We sat in a cloud of smoke as she conjured up images of a vanished world of style and glamour, a world she played her own part in creating as she worked behind the scenes in radio, TV and even the legendary Melbourne Truth.

Like so many people, she found a sense of freedom in the centre of Australia when she came here forty years ago for a job with Connair Airlines. Here she was allowed plenty of space for her benign eccentricities to flourish and enrich the town. Teddy was immortalised in her role in the classic ‘lawn-sailing’ documentary The Shell-encrusted Toilet Seat.

They played The Entertainer for Teddy at today’s service, but as B.J.Owens suggested at the graveside, My Way would have been equally appropriate.

Read Miriam Raphael’s tribute to Teddy Cairns in The Centralian Advocate