The family’s admiration for Nancy Dunlop was reaffirmed in the overflowing crowd that packed the Wesley Uniting Church for her funeral yesterday, when the gathering heard eulogies given by her grand-daughters Nicole Davey and Heidi Delahunty.

The girls stood arm in arm supporting each other during the address to mourners.

They spoke in glowing terms of a beloved grandmother who had a huge influence on their lives and helped them understand what true human values are.

These confident and articulate young women reminded those gathered that while Nancy Dunlop was a fun-loving person who once swam naked for the full length of the Dubbo Olympic Pool, she also made sure they should always be understanding of others and not to be judgmental.

A long-time friend of the Dunlop family, Tom McCann, gave a history of Mrs Dunlop’s life, which began in Dubbo on August 13 1921.

Of her early childhood memories, a favourite was travelling home by horse and sulky from her grandparents’ property ‘Loggerheads’ on the Wellington Road.

Nancy’s grandfather, whom she called Dar, drove the sulky pulled by an old clydesdale named Dobbin.

Dobbin would constantly pass wind on the way home and Dar would say, “wonderful clover we have on the farm.”

Mrs Dunlop had a strong association with the Weslyan Church and it was revealed her family’s connection went back to the first Weslyan Church built in Australia in 1817.

Nancy’s father Alfred Lees was the great-great-grandson of John Lees and Mary Stevens who built the church on the Nepean River at Penrith - near the site of the regatta events at last year’s Olypmics.

Nancy’s love of people was nurtured at an early age among neighbours in Brisbane Street where she lived.

As a little girl she loved to go and meet her Dad and walk home with him for lunch.

Her father Alfred Lees had a store in Talbragar Street where the post office now stands.

All the shops closed for lunch in the 1920s, a practice that remained in vogue until 1957.

Nancy had a great love for the circus and always sat in the front row whenever it came to town.

The circus always set up on the corner of Church and Brisbane streets in those days - the current site of the Mimosa Flats.

Even as a child she was renowned for her gift of the gab and was frequently reprimanded for her outspoken nature.

Her punishment was to sit on the gas box and she was known to have had many a meal there.

While they may have led a fairly strict household, Nancy’s parents Alfred and Ivy Lees set a great example for their children giving a lot of time to the church and the community.

For a time Alfred was keen on greyhounds and walked them along the river every morning.

Nancy loved to accompany him but preferred to swim.

She swam from the White Bridge to the Railway Bridge (red bridge) every morning.

When she was 15 years old the new Olympic pool was opened and always one to try something new she did a test dive off the 12-metre tower in a new set of Dunlop rubber swimming costumes her father sold.

The dive was a great success but on surfacing she was greeted with the new costumes floating on the water.

Her father also had a new set of rubber underpants that were meant to work like a girdle.

While walking down Macquarie Street near the old Post Office the new undies slipped off.

Without a second glance Nancy stepped out of them and kept walking.

In 1939 she met and fell in love with a shy young man named Kevan Dunlop.

The young couple married in the Wesley Uniting Church on October 4 1941.

Soon after their marriage the Dunlops began a family, which grew and developed along with the dynamic town of Dubbo.

Both became heavily involved in civic and community duties devoting countless hours to these causes.

Kevan and Nancy were both elected to council, with Kevan becoming mayor at the time of Dubbo’s proclamation as a city in 1966.

Nancy Dunlop was responsible for many great achievements in her life including being named citizen of the year in 1988.

However the lingering memory instilled in those gathered at the church yesterday is of a woman who set a very fine example for her family.