Margaret was born a twin with Daniel at Ballarat in December 1925. Their father Mick was working as a shearer and farm laborer, but in 1927 he moved to a property of his own at Dalmore in West Gippsland. Margaret attended Dalmore State School.

Margaret was a much-loved sister and daughter. She was small in stature, but big in heart. A passionate and vocal supporter of the South Melbourne Football Club, she was known for her direct manner which earned her the nickname of "Pepper".

As a small child she was almost inseparable from her twin brother Dan and younger brother John, who had been born exactly 12 months later. She's remembered as saying: "Come on all the bodies" and all three little toddlers would be off around the farm at Dalmore. Margaret was definitely the leader. One day, their father found all three asleep in a furrow in one of the ploughed paddocks.

Margaret was about 10 when the floods struck Dalmore and forced her father to search for a new home, eventually settling at Fumina.

Her first job at the age of 14 was helping the bus proprietor's wife at Noojee. Her sister Noreen recalls that this was a live-in position. Then the war came and women of all ages were required to take up jobs normally held by men.

Margaret was called up by the Manpower Department and sent to work in the kitchen of the old Royal Melbourne Hospital. Noreen said her sister hated the environment she found herself in.

"She was horrified at the language and morals of the people she had to work and live with," Noreen said.

"When she escaped from that situation she had a stint at Brockhoff's Biscuit Factory and then trained as a telephonist. It is hard to imagine manual telephone exchanges now, but they were a great source of employment for girls."

Margaret helped care for her sister Sheila before she died of tuberculosis in January 1947. She alternated shifts with Sheila's husband Stan and lived with them at their home in Whitby Street, West Brunswick. She stayed on there for a while after Sheila died, but when Stan remarried she went to live in a girls' hostel called Chalmer's Hall next to St Andrew's Hospital and opposite the Treasury Buildings. Noreen stayed there also.

Unfortunately Margaret also contracted TB and succumbed to her first bout of the disease in 1948. She painfully broke the sad news to her family about Christmas 1948, less than two years after Sheila had died.

Noreen recalls: "Margaret was sent to the TB sanitarium at Sale on the shores of the lake where I think she stayed for one year. In her despair she found herself wading into the lake one night, but came to her senses before the deeper water engulfed her. It was a terrible time for us all."

Margaret recovered and spent some time with her family at Icy Creek. Her brother Peter recalls that she was a "real chatterbox" and talked for hours about her experiences at Sale.

She liked playing tricks and gave Peter an "earful" if he ever got on the wrong side of her.

Peter's nickname among the girls was "The Creature" although if relations were cordial, Margaret used to call him "Creatch".

"Little Marg had a tough life, but never lost her indomitable spirit or her humor," Peter said.

"She had a delightful giggle when something amused her."

Margaret moved to Melbourne, where according to Noreen, she was forced to rent "shabby little flats" because of an accommodation shortage. She worked on various office switchboards.

At the beginning of 1952 she was again diagnosed as having a TB infection. She was cared for at the Fairfield Hospital and then the Peter McCallum Clinic which at that time specialised in TB. On her discharge she went to stay with her mother and brothers Jim and Peter at Drouin. In time she recovered properly and returned to Melbourne about 1954-55.

Margaret saved up for a holiday cruise to Fiji which she thoroughly enjoyed. Noreen remembers that by 1962 her sister had a nice flat in Carlton near Royal Parade where she paid £5 a week rent. She married Morton Palmer in January 1964 when she was 38 years old.

"They had met at one of the old-time dancing ballrooms. Morton had just finished training as a teacher — as a mature-age student I think," Noreen said.

Margaret dressed in full bridal regalia for the wedding and "very young and pretty she looked too," Noreen said. "My daughters Julie and Linda were her two flowergirls. Mary's son Dennis Burns drove the two of them to Margaret's home the night before the wedding, where to her dismay, she found their dresses were too long. She sat up most of the night altering them."

Margaret and Morton had 16 happy years together. They were both South Melbourne football supporters and regularly went to see their team play. "At a football match Margaret could be downright embarrassing — loudly haranguing any spectator who dared to criticise her team," Noreen said.

"She was a tiny little thing; only 4ft 11in with a perky, cheerful personality."

Peter said he went to the football with Margaret a few times, but had to give it up because "it was too dangerous".

"She got very personal when engaged with the enemy. She honed in on anything that seemed to catch her eye. Most times it was their teeth," Peter said.

She once told a smirking Richmond supporter to "go home and brush your filthy teeth and have a wash you horrible creature".

Margaret was once surprised to come across her father Mick at the "Paris end" of Collins Street. It was a fine sunny day. Executives and office workers were outside eating their lunches.

Margaret chatted a while with her dad and they parted. Mick had gone about 20 metres when he stopped and called out loudly in his up-country accent: "Hey Marg, I woulda taken ya for a feed, but I've got an appointment with a foot quack. He's gunna fix up me corns on me hoofs".

Margaret smiled and nodded farewell as she ducked into the nearest shop to avoid the stares and snickers.

At the age of 52 Margaret was diagnosed as having breast cancer, and unfortunately it had spread to her spine. She was treated at Peter McCallum Clinic, the same place where she had gone with tuberculosis many years before. She died in 1980, aged 55.

"Margaret was bright and chatty to the end. She was a kind and generous big sister to me and made Sheila's long illness bearable with her ungrudging company," Noreen said.