Glebe Society member and ABC radio presenter, Deborah Cameron, whose untimely death is a great loss to the Glebe community (image: ABC)

We were greatly saddened by the untimely death of journalist and Glebeite, Deb Cameron in mid June 2018. She is survived by her partner, Greg Earl, and their two children Nat and Eleanor.

Deb was a member of the Glebe Society, and we were fortunate to have her as a speaker at our New Members’ Night in 2012. She also was actively involved in the campaign to stop the closure of the Glebe Post Office in 2011. Deb loved ‘knitting the community together’ in her work and also in her personal life.

Media colleagues have paid the highest of tributes to her outstanding skills as a global reporter and a successful broadcaster hosting the ABC radio 702 morning program, where listeners will remember her closing off each day with a cheery ‘hoo-roo’. Her engaging communication skills were also recognised for her work in city and country town community consultation.

On Monday 18 June St James Church Glebe was overflowing with family, friends, work colleagues, neighbours and the Glebe community who gathered to bid Deb a fond farewell. This was a testimony to the high regard in which she was held by the people she touched in all parts of her life. In his eulogy, Greg Earl painted a picture of a woman ‘as colourful as her clothing, who never lost her rural, earthy origins wherever we lived in the world. She embraced the most colourful aspects from those cultures, from jazz to sumo wrestling. Instead of the usual politics from those cities, she covered social issues, such as suicides on the slopes of Mount Fuji to the changing contents of the bento box’.

With a love of Glebe and a genuine interest in everyone she met, she was always there with a cheery smile, a passion for life and a generosity of spirit to help others. Those gathered at the service shared very similar memories of Deb as someone who brought a ‘country town sensibility’ to our local community; she truly was one of the friendliest faces in Glebe.

Her many neighbours from Arcadia Rd and Bellevue St commented on how easily she connected with people and her outgoing and positive views on life. Deb loved Galluzzos and Joe shared that he just knew her as ‘Smiley Deb’ – he didn’t know of her media fame. For Joe, ‘she came to shop with a glowing smile and always made time for an uplifting chat’.

Deb lived a very full life with a love of family, friends and community. A passionate and genuine woman with no pretensions – just an energy for life which sadly was far too short. Our thoughts are with Greg and their children.