Born: Joan Muriel Brewer
1928 at Westbourne Park
Died: March 21, 2017
Fullarton Lutheran Homes, Adelaide, South Australia.
Jaye — as she was called — was the daughter of a sea captain with the British East India Company and spent part of her early childhood in India and England.
When she was 31 with two young children, Mrs Walton’s husband John was injured in a serious car accident and she decided to return to the workforce.
“She was a woman before her time,’’ her daughter Mandy-Jane Giannopoulos said on Tuesday. “When women were still in the kitchen in the 1950s she set her path to be involved in modelling, and then in finishing schools and then television.
Radio host Jane Reilly described her as a trailblazer.
“I remember her saying if you want to be truly successful, you need to have half the audience loving you and the other half hating you, then they all talk about you,” she told News Corp.
In 1980, Mrs Walton was awarded an OAM for her services to TV.
In 1991, Thailand’s then-King Bhumibol awarded her the medal of the Royal White Elephant for her services to charity.In 1980, Mrs Walton was awarded an OAM for her services to TV. She also hosted her own evening radio program, Walton’s World, on 5DN in the early 1980s and published SAM (South Australian Magazine) for the Messenger group from 1982-87.
After her TV career in Adelaide, Mrs Walton took on a role with the Thailand tourism authority, producing promotional films which led to her making a series of documentaries with the Thai royal family.
In 1979, she was appointed Thai honorary consul-general for South Australian and the Northern Territory, a title she kept until her death.
Continuing the style of Touch of Elegance, she presented a long-running program called Thai-Oz Talk on Thailand’s national TV. Trevor Lanyon, who was the original director of Touch of Elegance, said the program began as a 20-minute segment which followed the Today Show.
Touch of Elegance became a blueprint for morning TV programs and paid promotions.
Mrs Walton, OAM, passed away peacefully at the age of 88.
R.I.P.