Australian Dictionary of Biography

Marcia Spicer, n.d.

Supplied by family

Marcia Spicer (1947–1999), career woman and supporter of euthanasia, was born on 2 April 1947 in Melbourne, second of four children of Victorian-born parents Jack Dihm (1919–2012) and his wife Mona Lillian, née Martin (1919–1965). Jack had served as a gunner in the Australian Imperial Force in World War II, fighting in North Africa, Greece, and Crete in 1941. Back in Australia, he was diagnosed with anxiety neurosis, probably the condition later generations would call post-traumatic stress disorder. After the war he drifted between jobs until 1950 when he joined the Australian Regular Army; he was to serve until 1972, rising to warrant officer, class one.

Dihm’s career entailed frequent moves for his young family and Marcia was educated at schools in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. By 1962 the family was living at Rockhampton and from November she worked as a shop assistant in the department store of James Stewart & Co. Pty Ltd. She was an A-grade basketball player, but her father disapproved and threatened to ‘kick her out’ if she continued to pursue the sport (Spicer 29 August 2022). Defying him, she returned from a game to find her possessions strewn over the footpath. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer in early 1965 and the family moved to Brisbane. Rather than attempt to live with her father, Marcia decided to leave home, and remained at Rockhampton. In September, sponsored by Stewarts, she won the titles of Capricana Festival Queen and, for raising the most money by entrants in the beauty quest, Charity Queen.

In early 1966 Dihm moved to Brisbane. With her beauty queen title, the brown-eyed, dark-haired teenager secured a job on the cosmetics counter of David Jones Ltd’s Brisbane department store, where she also became a model. Her title again proved an asset when, a few months later, she applied for a position with Thomas Nationwide Transport Ltd. The company had advertised for ‘pretty young female’ courier drivers, believing their presence might attract more business (Spicer 2017, 4). She was reported to be the first woman employed as a courier driver in Queensland. Later in the year, she began working in reservations for Queensland Airlines Pty Ltd.

There Dihm met Paul Bevan Spicer, a clerk with Ansett Airlines of Australia, who worked in the same building; the couple had spoken over the phone while discussing airline reservations, and she liked the sound of his voice. They married on 20 April 1968 at the City Congregational Church, Brisbane, and had two daughters: Tracey, a respected broadcast journalist, social commentator, and author; and Suzanne, a renowned Brisbane couturier. Following her second child’s birth, she had worked for some ten years from the early 1970s at Florence Kindergarten, Margate, then managed the Shoe City shop at Kippa-Ring. From 1994 she was a successful real estate agent with Burpengary Narangba Property Marketing (to 1997) and then with Harcourts at Caboolture and would follow that occupation until her death.

Effusive and empathetic, Spicer lived life to the full, a devoted mother, wife, friend, mentor, and employee, who worked hard and sought opportunities to educate herself. She forgave her father and was reconciled with him, understanding that his war trauma and the loss of his wife and later his younger son to cancer had caused him immense grief. Passionate about women’s rights, she instilled in her children that they could be whatever they wanted. She was an exceptional cook, talented singer, artist, and designer. Remaining a keen sportswoman, she embraced tennis and swimming as well as basketball.

In late March 1999 Spicer was diagnosed with metastatic cancer, probably originating in the pancreas, and given seven months to live. On 25 October, exactly seven months later, she died in Redcliffe Hospital, Brisbane, and was cremated. Her husband and daughters survived her. She had been a lifelong believer in ‘the right to die with dignity’ (Cazzulino 2008, 9). Her family had watched helplessly in her final months, as she struggled with unbearable pain, unmitigated by the strongest drugs. After her mother’s death, Tracey Spicer became a prominent advocate for the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying, speaking and writing widely on the subject. Her campaign pre-dated organisations such as Go Gentle Australia which gave proponents of VAD laws a national, centralised voice from July 2016. The parliament of Queensland passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act on 16 September 2021, making it legal for terminally ill people to choose to end their lives.