Valerie Cooney hailed as amazing, talented performer after passing away at age of 88

Tributes are being paid to a Gold Coast legend of stage and screen whose stellar career included a performance on the first night of ABC television. SEE THE VIDEO

TRIBUTES are being paid to a Gold Coast legend of stage and screen whose stellar career included a performance on the first night of ABC television.

Valerie Cooney, who passed away this week at the age of 88 following a short illness, also sang on BBC TV in the UK, hosted her own talk show and spent many years working in Los Angeles and Spain.

In 1994 she returned to Australia, settling in Robina and becoming a much-loved stalwart at the Gold Coast Little Theatre, where she continued to perform into her early eighties.

Bob Fallon as Bob and Valerie Cooney as Helga Ten-Dorp in the Gold Coast Little Theatre's production of Deathtrap in 2008.

Ms Cooney is survived by daughters Kellie Wiker and Stacey Mehrgan and four grandchildren.

Ms Wiker, herself a professional singer working in Las Vegas, said her mother was very well loved and would be sorely missed.

“She was amazing,” Ms Wiker said.

“She had so many friends with the theatre she was involved with.

“About six or seven years ago she did a play, and she stepped in last minute and learned the entire play, Quartet, in two weeks.

“And that was when she was 81 or 82.”

Valerie Cooney at the Gold Coast Little Theatre awards night in 2009.

Valerie Cooney with daughters Stacey Mehrgan and Kellie Wiker.

Ms Wiker said her mother, who she described as “elegant, classy and funny”, became a major star in the early days of television.

After appearing on the opening night of ABC television in November 1956 when she sang the popular song ‘Too Marvellous For Words’, Ms Cooney hosted a weekly live program called ‘Picture Page’ in which she interviewed Australian and overseas celebrities.

The talented singer, actor and pianist later had another show on ABC called ‘Valerie Cooney Sings’, appeared in numerous commercials, and as late as 1993 had a feature role in BBC television series ‘Eldorado’.

“A friend of my father’s wrote to me and said back in the day, in the 50s, every man was in love with Valerie Cooney,” Ms Wiker said.

“I think there was even a cartoon in one of the magazines of a little boy holding a TV Guide that she was on the cover of and the mother is going, ‘No, you can’t marry Valerie’.”

Valiere Cooney pictured during a performance on the first night of ABC television in November 1956.

Ms Wiker said her mother also loved to travel, making regular trips until the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

“The last time she travelled was 2019, she came over to Las Vegas to see me in a show,” Ms Wiker said.

“She was still travelling pretty much every year until Covid hit.

“She was classy and elegant and everybody loved her.”

Tributes to Ms Cooney have also been paid on social media by her many friends on the Gold Coast since the sad news of her passing was revealed.

“She was such a classy lady who will be missed by so many of us,” wrote Shane Caddaye.

Amber Clements said she was a “beautiful and talented woman” who would be very much missed, while Robert Grant said she was “a beautiful lady who was a pleasure to work with on numerous productions”.

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