Lorrae Desmond

Lorrae Desmond, MBE is a Gold Logieaward winning Australianborn singer, entertainer, and character actress and theatre lyricist, in the vein of Joy Nichols with a career spanning over 50 years, both locally and internationally . She remains best known for her long running role as Shirley Shirl Gilroy in the television series A Country Practice, which she played from 1981 to 1992.

Lorrae Desmond was born as Beryl Hunt onOctober 1932, in Mittagong, New South Wales. Her father was Dr. D.E Hunt. She travelled to Britain in the 1950s, and at 16, as Lorrae started her career as a singing cigarette girl and became a celebrity there, she performed as a solo artist and with backing group The Rebels, she appearing in cabaret, pantomime, radio, and live recording, including several shows for the BBC, including Meet Lorrae and Swing with Lorrae. She even featured in her own comedy series Trouble for Two in 1958, was in the cast of several TerryThomas TV specials, and competed to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957.

Source: Wikipedia