A Great Light Now Soars

An inspiring local lady and much-loved family woman, Cathy Knezevic, passed away last week following a brave two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.

Remembered by everyone who knew her as a kind-hearted, deeply caring person with a flamboyant and distinctive sense of style and passion for the arts, Cathy lit up any room she entered.

Hailing from Walkerston and then a cane farm on the Victoria Plains, Cathy married when she was young and had three children: Benjamin, Emma-Kate, and Adam.

Cathy worked for 20 years as a librarian at Mackay City Council, as well as managing the Council’s art collection. She was the Inaugural art curator of Mackay Artspace gallery and exhibitions, and Collections manager of Mackay Artspace’s nationally significant Artists Book collection.

She became the Director of Mackay’s Arthouse Gallery and Whitsunday Art Gallery, and was the Founding Director of the Whitsundays Art Festival, which is now in its third year.

In a loving relationship with Tom for 38 years, the couple were a formidable force as the multi-award-winning Mackay Queensland Homes building company where Cathy’s interior design skills were invaluable.

The people she met throughout her life and the positive and lasting relationships she created, however, were by far her biggest accomplishments alongside raising her children and becoming a grandmother.

“Cathy was a woman of beauty, flair, love, culture and all things absolutely fabulous,’ said her son, Adam.

“Although this is what she is most known for, mum was also humble, very shy and insecure at times - I think Mum's beloved Library friends summed it up best when they gave her the nickname 'the shy peacock'.”

Cathy loved a practical joke and, if she saw a family member’s car unattended, would often jump in and either drive off or hide and jump out on them.

She will also be remembered for her unique dress sense.

“Mum's look and image is iconic - she had some serious style!” said Adam.

“The big permed black hair, the nail polish, the lipstick, the bright clothes, the animal skin patterns and the pineapple hair!”

Cathy’s vibrant personality and positive presence touched everyone that knew her, and she will be deeply missed both in the Whitsundays where she lived and in Mackay where she grew-up and spent much of her life.

Cathy wearing her favourite dress