Noreen Edith Smith

The Aussie wants you to know that she did not pass away, she did not pass on and she did not pass over. She died. And, indeed, she did. On Saturday evening, Sept. 13, with every intention of polishing her fingernails and watching "Doc Martin" on PBS, Noreen Edith (Potts) Smith, 86, died from long-term complications of cancer at the Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital in Glasgow, Mont.

Noreen's wishes were to be cremated and interred with her husband, Harley, in the military cemetery at Miles City. Her Bingo Memorial will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 30, from 1-5 p.m. at the Glasgow Senior Citizens' Center, complete with Aussie tales, memories and prizes.

To most Americans, her accent gave her away. She was born Feb. 20, 1928, in Grenfell, New South Wales, Australia, to Kathleen (Kit) Eva (Chew), who sang regularly on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) radio, and to Harry Montague Potts, who was a bank manager, community leader and loved to bet on the horses.

She was an only daughter with three brothers, Don, who is two years younger, and two brothers who were more than 12 years older than she and Don. When old enough to wonder about the significance of this gap, a young Noreen worriedly asked her mother, "What happened? Weren't you speaking to Dad?"

Known for her large repertoire of stories, jokes, songs and stride piano style, her acting and singing career began at age 3 on stage as a flower, a role quickly followed by a more nuanced performance as a cat singing on a fence.

She recounted that as a young teen she rode her bike to the top of a hill to wave to the Spitfires flying overhead during World War II. When the Japanese bombed Darwin (in northern Australia), she and Don were sent from Sydney to live on farms in the countryside. The bombing, she recalled, also brought in American troops whose uniforms were spiffier than the Aussies and who doled out chocolate and nylons. They were touted, she said, as Over Dressed, Over Paid, Over Sexed and Over Here.

During high school, she also starred in stage melodramas whose scripts she could still quote and went on to attend a finishing school, Meriden Ladies College. Years later, as adults, she and Don toured the college grounds and found that the school had been re-named Meriden College, a name change that Don attributed to a fall from grace as a result of Noreen's attendance.

After graduation, she held a number of secretarial positions, from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, where she often slipped rum into her boss's coffee cup, to the police force from 1958-1964 in Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea, then a protectorate of Australia. After office hours in PNG, she wowed audiences of various clubs by singing pop songs and standards to a live band and by often playing piano at parties.

During the Vietnam War, American servicemen often spent R & R in Sydney, Australia, and that is how Noreen met the love of her life, Harley Gail Smith, Jr. He let her know that he wasn't just an American; he was a Texan! Growing up in Texas, he was known as Gail. She advised him that in macho Australia, it was best that he skip the Gail and introduce himself as Harley. Thirteen days later they were engaged.

She and Harley were married in Pampa, Texas, Harley's hometown, on Jan. 30, 1970. After Harley's tour of duty and retirement from the Air Force, they settled for a time near Wyong, Sydney, Australia, and later moved to the U.S. to live in Wolfforth and Lubbock, Texas.

Her Aussie background sometimes proved too exotic for Texans. One Texan asked her once to say something in Australian. Noreen reported that Harley quietly moved away with a smile to the other side of the room before she answered.

In 1992, she and Harley moved to Montana and became founding members of the fledgling Saint Marie community, then a military retirement village, forged from the former Glasgow Air Force Base .

Shortly after their arrival, Harley, who had survived a brain tumor treated while in Australia, suffered a stroke and later died. Noreen's plan to sell everything and return to Australia in 2002 was stopped short when she was diagnosed with cancer.

The intense doses of radiation she received saved her life but caused lingering health problems - all of which she met with aplomb and Aussie good humor.

Once, while viewing her heart on a monitor during a nuclear stress test, the medical team asked Noreen, then 83, to think of something that excited her. "You mean like Richard Gere?" she asked.

Playing nickel bingo on Tuesdays at the Glasgow Senior Center excited her almost as much as Richard Gere. She delighted in picking cards with winning numbers - usually family birth dates plus "Jack Benny" (39), in selecting her lucky talisman – anything from a koala to the Geico gekko - and settling in with her Bingo buddies for a couple of hours of "competitive" bingo. Most of all, she enjoyed rousing on the caller John Dalby, threatening him with mob hits by the Gambino brothers if he didn't call her numbers.

Although she in recent months hadn't been able to join her Bingo buddies, she made her presence felt. From her hospital bed in Billings Clinic, she phoned Mr. Dalby to persuade him to bring back nickel bingo after it had lapsed for a while this past summer.

She made a friend of everyone she met and brightened their day with her quips, cards and compliments. She adored her dog, her cat and her flower garden, which contains two decorative cranes named Niles and Frasier.

She was preceded in death by her father, Harry Montague Potts in 1959, and her mother, Kathleen Eva Potts, in 1976; two brothers, Norman Elmhirst Potts in 1995 and Gordon Arthur Potts in 1989; and her husband, Harley Gall Smith Jr., who died July 30, 1993.

Survivors include one brother, Donald Edmund Potts, and his wife, Yvonne, of Umina Beach, New South Wales, Australia.

Bell Mortuary of Glasgow is handling arrangements.