ST Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, in Brisbane was Vicki Sargent’s only school as a teacher – and that community did the much-loved 45-year-old proud at her funeral in St Stephen’s Cathedral on November 1.
Traffic came to a stop as Gregory Terrace students lined Elizabeth Street and were spontaneously joined by other mourners in a guard of honour stretching down the cathedral steps and into Creek Street.
Classes at the college had finished at 12.30pm to enable students and teachers who wished, to attend – and an overwhelming number did.
It was estimated more than 1200 mourners had packed the service which spilled out into the cathedral grounds.
Friends came from as far away as Melbourne and Rockhampton and one Terrace old boy flew in from Canberra.
Also in the group leading the casket out to where students stood, heads bowed in a guard of honour, were the college’s student leaders.
Gregory Terrace’s chaplain Fr Ray Brain, who had been ministering to her in recent years, and had seen her only the day before her death on Sunday October 28, conducted the service.
Her brother, Bruce Sargent, presented the eulogy.
One of her colleagues and close friend Alison Price-Stone said said Miss Sargent had been an integral part of Terrace life since her arrival from teacher’s college 24 years earlier.
Mrs Price-Stone paid tribute to Miss Sargent’s passion for the arts and for education.
“This passion and competence established her as a leading visual art teacher and most recently as the first female member of the leadership team at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace.”
Miss Sargent is survived by her mother Bernadette of Regina Caeli parish, Coorparoo, and brothers Bruce and Neil.
A condolence book in Miss Sargent’s honour has been set up on the Gregory Terrace website at www.terrace.qld.edu.au/guestbook
