BIOGRAPHY
Ellen Walker, known as Nellie or Helen, was born in 1870 in Milton, the fouth child of Alexander and Isabella Walker born in New Zealand.
It is thought that Helen was living in Dunedin in 1893 when she had a daughter. Her daughter's birth was registered in Dunedin and the 1893 electoral roll has Hellen Walker living at Castle Street with occupation "Domestic Duties". The father of her child was not recorded on the birth registration.
In October 1895 the Otago Witness reported that Helen had married John Stanley in September at Sydney, Australia. John was a surveyor. This appears to be untrue, as no record of the marriage can be found in New South Wales marriage registers, and the Rev. Thomas Fielding, reported to have married the couple, does not appear in NSW newspaper reports available on TROVE to have performed any marriages in 1895. Helen and John are not recorded at the same address in NZ or NSW Electoral rolls. After this announcement in the Otago Witness Helen and her daughter both used the surname STANLEY.
Based on the school attendance of Helen's daughter Coralie, Helen appears to have lived and worked in various locations around New Zealand between 1902 and 1909, Auckland, Invercargill and Canterbury, with Coralie sometimes being cared for by her grandparents in Milton.
In 1915 Helen was very ill with goitre in Auckland. Her sister and niece (both called Charlotte) from Gisborne visited her. In 1919 Helen wrote a letter from Rakauroa, Gisborne, while visiting her siter, to the Surgeon General asking if her nephew George Redpath could obtain treatment for alcoholism. A subsequent followup letter was sent from an Auckland hotel.
Based on shipping records and newspaper reports about her daugter Coralie, it appears that Helen frequently accompanied her daughter as she moved with her carear. In 1920 she accompanied Coralie to Sydney, in 1931-1933 they were recorded living together in London Electoral Rolls, and in 1934, when Helen died, they were living together in Sydney. The following newspaer report is of Helen's death.
Her Heart Was Breaking While She Sang Over Air
Over the air last night from station 2UW came the brightest of radio sketches - the Frolics of 1934 - replete with the jolliest
of songs, of laughter, and merry interchange of wit, and the most effervescent of them all was the principal actress - Mrs. Coralie Stanley McKellar, the writer of "Beachcombings" in "The Sunday Sun" - though her eyes were streaming with tears and her heart was breaking.
At 6 o'clock Mrs. McKellar's mother, Mrs. Helen Stanley, died at her home In Billyard-avenue, Elizabeth Bay, and at 8 o'clock Mrs. McKellar was to appear in the sketch written and arranged by herself.
Frequently it has fallen to the lot of some artists that in a moment of their greatest sadness they have had to serve their public, and their friends. So, bravely, last night, Mrs. McKellar declared that the show must go on.
Before the microphone, her fellow actors and actresses were tense with anxiety. They feared that the task would be too much for her. Charlie Lawrence, that inimitable jester, grave and silent, placed a supporting arm about her shoulders.
For a moment Mrs. McKellar swayed, then in a flash was the artist again, singing, laughing, dancing - the gayest of the gay.
There was a brief respite during a pianoforte solo. Wearily, she rested on a couch. Then back to the microphone - kiddies' sketch. Then a rest again.
Agony of Strain
And so it went on for the duration of a sketch that occupied 55 minutes. To the public listening-in a happy diversion, to the artist providing their pleasure, an agony of strain.
All the time through the window of the studio office watched, whitefaced, Mrs. McKellar's daughter, Gloria. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she watched her mother's every gesture. Her quivering lips heard on several occasions the hard-fought catch in her voice.
Then it was the end.
Gloria took her mother In her arms and together they sobbed quietly.
"Was the show all right?" Mrs. McKellar asked, anxiously.
For her daughter the gesture was too courageous to allow her to answer.
Source: The Sun (Sydney), 6 May 1934, Page 2.
Chris Korte's New Zealand Genealogy Project
1870 - 1934 (64 years)
Has 16 ancestors and 2 descendants in this family tree.
[1] 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
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