Renowned and beloved Australian children’s television presenter Dawn Kenyon has died, aged 91.
She died in Wahroonga earlier this year, a week from her 92nd birthday, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Kenyon, best known as Romper Room’s “Miss Dawn”, was Australia’s first children’s television producer and one of the first women on Australian television.
As a 24-year-old in 1956, the year TV was introduced in Australia, Kenyon found herself presenting in front of the camera as well as working behind the scenes producing the 90-minute daily Captain Fortune program.
It was the first dedicated children’s television produced in Australia, and Kenyon was ATN7 Sydney’s first coordinating producer of children’s programs, after having worked at radio 5KA Adelaide and CBC in Canada.
The Captain Fortune program would entertain children every weekday afternoon with Dawn’s music, drama and poetry and a cast of experts who would talk about everything from road safety to Australian flora and fauna.
Within the program, a 15-minute segment called Romper Room began, which was later expanded to a standalone program. Romper Room became an enduring Australian franchise for preschoolers, characterised by a mixture of physical activities and simple moral lessons.
Kenyon would speak directly to the children viewing Romper Room from home, and was later affectionately referred to as “the first lady of Australian television”.
Despite this beloved role she filled, Kenyon admitted decades later that “most of my friends have no idea that I was ever connected with television”, according to the SMH, as she always preferred to work in the background.
Born in Toowoomba in 1932, Kenyon was originally named Dorothy Dawn Dingwall and was the only child of champion Queensland rugby player and Anzac Light Horseman Gordon Dingwall and stage performer and entrepreneur Wealthy Oehlman.
She spent her childhood in Mount Isa, and travelled to a high school between Mount Isa and the family’s home town of Toowoomba.
From an early age, Kenyon learned piano and became an accomplished pianist. After high school, she moved to Adelaide to complete her Associate of Music, Australia at the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium.
She was introduced by comedian and entertainer Jimmy Tonkin to broadcaster Eric Pearce, then 5KA station manager, who offered her a job as a scriptwriter and record librarian, as well as occasional station accompanist.
Kenyon then travelled to the UK and North America before finding herself back in Australia, taking up the children’s tv presenter position with ATN7.
Advocating for Live television Kenyon once said, “Aim for perfection. It’s very important to try to be the best you can be, but if something goes wrong it doesn’t matter. It’s funny and you just accept that.”
In 1957, she married Fred Kenyon, a British television engineer. The couple would go on to have three children: Steven, Peter, and Anne.
Outside of family, Kenyon volunteered with the Merry Makers– a unique troupe, most of whom live with an intellectual or physical disability, who meet each week to rehearse and perform through dance. She did this for 25 years.
Many of Kenyon’s friends in the media industry paid tribute to her as news broke of her passing.
Leading Australian television producer and journalist Anita Jacoby shared a commonly held opinion in the community that “Dawn was always a shining light.”
And journalist Jeff McMullen wrote to her daughter Anne: “Your warm-hearted mother was so often the first to greet us, introduce us to new families, and lead us deeper into that magic of the Merry Makers.”
Kenyon is survived by two of her three children, Peter and Anne, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Steven, her eldest son, died in 2016.