Beach getaway: Max and Yvonne on their honeymoon in Queensland in 1960. Source, Carlos family
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This photo of Max and Yvonne Carlos on their honeymoon in Queensland was featured on my Lost Shepparton Facebook page last week, and there was a terrific response. I have featured some of the comments below.
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I never met Max, but a few years back, I met Yvonne when I was managing the Heritage Centre. She visited a few times and was keen to share photos and stories about Max. I thought for this week’s column, I would share this reflection of Max and Yvonne by Margaret Marlow, who knew them both well. She posted this on Lost Shepparton on May 16, 2021:
Wedding: Max Carlos and Yvonne Jones tie the knot in 1960.
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Many of you would remember Yvonne Carlos (née Jones), who was a regular contributor to our page.
Sadly, Yvonne passed away at her home in Melbourne on May 14 after a 15-month battle with illness.
Yvonne was born at the Mooroopna Hospital in 1941, and her formative years were spent in Shepparton, where she attended Fryers St Primary School and then Shepp High. After leaving school, she was employed as a junior clerk at Cameron’s Solicitors on Fraser St.
Vivacious and talented, Yvonne was a popular figure at district dance competitions and was sought after as a model at local store fashion parades.
Watchful: Shepparton’s own boxing champ, Max Carlos, with local boxers in 1967.
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She met Max Carlos, an Olympian and Australian lightweight boxing champion, at a dance at the Star Theatre in Fryers St, and in 1960, they married. Soon after, the pair opened a menswear shop in Fraser St. Max was a tailor by trade and made many wedding suits for young bridegrooms of the time.
As a young mum, Yvonne kept busy with her children and her yoga and joined the Light Music Company, where she acted and choreographed for a production.
The couple’s four children saw a lot of the world at a young age, as Yvonne and Max loved to travel. Sadly, Max passed away in 1996 when the children were young adults.
Throughout her life, Yvonne continued her love of travel with her family and friends.
In recent years, Melbourne has been her home, but she has always remembered where she came from and has a phenomenal memory of people and places around Shepparton.
Yvonne will be sorely missed by those who knew her, and our condolences go out to her beloved children, Simone, Jason, Adam and Marika and their extended family, all of whom showed incredible strength and devotion to Yvonne during her illness. Dance in paradise, dear Yvonne Carlos. We will miss you.
Yvonne Jones, ballet dancer.
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Lost Shepparton Facebook comments:
Peter Barrett: I bought my first (and best) suit from Max Carlos. Not long after, I went to work in Melbourne in an office job where you had to wear a suit and tie.
Clive G Reynolds: He was a great mate of Tom Hafey, who was the leading compositor of the Shepp News in High St.
Dook Wayman: He was a great bloke. He was my probation officer back in the early ’70s and made sure you got looked after properly.
Roz Cairns: I was a babysitter for them in the ’70s. They had four children, and Yvonne was always so beautifully dressed.
Ian Eliason: In my youth, I got a casual summer job with Max in the suit store. What an incredible person he was. Maybe around 1969.
Roger Govan-Smith: Max kept our fathers looking good in their tailor-made business suits. Top dude.
Artie Stevens: Max used to be the local expert for GMV6 TV Ringside. Lovely fella. It was always fun in the control room as he watched the bouts on the studio monitor from his hosting desk, ducking and weaving and air punching.
Gary O’Bryan: I so love this. The picture speaks a thousand words. Maxi and Yvonne are legends. I have fond memories of them both and the family in total. Many happy and hard times I’ve seen and been there with. Extraordinary lives with poise and integrity. I am sending much love.
Janet Anderson: Tom Hafey worked in their shop when he was captain and coach of Shepparton.
Charlie Harley: Respect to Maxxy. He taught me a bit in the ring. And his family always treated me well.
Margaret Marlow: I knew of Max and Yvonne as the trendy couple around town in the early days but wasn’t a close friend. Yvonne and I became good friends later in life. We messaged each other almost every day. She was funny, open, honest, entertaining and had an incredible memory. She faced her final illness with great courage and held on to her sense of humour throughout. I miss our chats.
Lorraine Collins: Max gave me all his cuttings from the newspapers on his boxing career, then I sorted them into the years and made a wonderful scrapbook for him in 1968.
