Jean Goodridge’s painting, ‘The Shooting of Grenfell’, was used for the cover of a book, Frank Clune’s ‘Wild Colonial Boys’, when it was reprinted in 1982. The original painting is now on display in the Museum’s Research Library.

Goodridge was one of Young’s premier artists and was ‘a woman of quick wit and warmth’.

She was born as Mavis Jean to John Louis Brown and his wife Alice Maude nee Jennings, near Young on 27 May 1917 and grew up on ‘Trafalgar’ farm on the Back Creek Road. She attended Pitstone Public School, then Young Intermediate High School and was taught piano by Miss Lillian Rogan.

On 18 September 1937. Jean married Wilfred Goodridge at St Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn and they lived there for a while before moving to Manly where their son Eddie was born.

Wilfred enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on 16 February 1942 and served in the Middle East, New Guinea and Borneo before his discharge on 11 December 1945. In the meantime, Jean took Eddie and returned to her parent’s farm ‘Trafalgar’ and helped on the farm.

After World War II, the couple bought a shop in Young where Jean worked as a florist. They later moved to the Garden Gate Florist Shop. The couple also had a daughter, Georgina. Jean also began to attend drawing and watercolour painting lessons on Saturday afternoons with Elizabeth McKay and she attended Summer School in 1965 at East Sydney Technical college. Unfortunately, Wilfred died at their home on Thursday 5 September 1968.

Jean continued to invest in her creative talent by taking pottery classes with Bea Anderson, the wife of Colonel Charles Anderson, VC. She constantly researched different art techniques and also took up spinning, weaving, china painting and copper enamelling, alongside poetry and story writing and knitting. She played the organ in St John’s Church and other churches at Wombat, Maimuru, Kingsvale, Hampstead and Wambanumba. She was amongst the founding members of the Young Art Club and Young Historical Society.

In 1976, her painting ‘View from Chance Hill’, won the Australian-American Festival at Young and was sent to be displayed at Young’s then sister city, Golden in Colorado, USA. In September 1979, she held her first solo exhibition in Young.

Between 1985 and 2001, she accompanied local singer Ken Pearson and they were well known at Young Retirement Village, the Mercy Care Centre and Mt St Joseph’s Home. Jean also received numerous Community Service Awards, two Australia Day Awards and was named Senior Citizen of the Year in 1995. Jean died on 2 December 2006 at Mt St Joseph’s Home.

Jean’s daughter, Georgina Yerbury, has donated a number of her mother’s paintings to the Museum and we also acquired a china plate she painted with cherries for the Young Cherry Festival.