Obituary: Remembering Vivien O’Donnell, much-loved in the Deddington community

The collective memory of Viv O’Donnell is of a warm, vibrant, fun-loving member of her community. A Justice of the Peace, recognised artist, charity worker and mother of four, Viv bloomed with colour and life. Just as her husband Dr.Hugh O’Donnell dispensed medicine and cared for the community, Viv dispensed love and laughter to all.

It seemed Viv was always a part of her beloved Deddington, but in fact she came from much further away.

In the late 1930s, as the war clouds darkened across the world, Viv’s Bristolian father (Peter Rich) headed east to Egypt to procure ingredients for the Fry’s Chocolate factory. Here Peter Rich met Hilda Paris - a young, sophisticated Maltese woman. Hilda and Peter married and in 1943 Hilda and Peter’s first child, Vivien Margaret Rich, was born in a military hospital on Gezira, an island in the middle of the Nile in the heart of Cairo. Later they lived in Port Said and Alexandria.

The war - and later the Suez Crisis - meant the family moved around regularly. One of her father’s later posts was as Commanding Officer of a customs embarkation unit in Singapore, manned by Gurkhas. Here, in 1947 Hilda gave birth to their son Alan, who survives Vivien.

Later the family lived in Hong Kong before settling back in the UK, in South West London, where Vivien attended a grammar school and passed the 11+. Aged 14 whilst performing in a collaborative school play, Vivien met a compelling 14-year-old, from a large London Irish family, called Hugh O'Donnell.

He carried her books home, they chatted, he wooed her and later they kissed under the stage. A life-long love affair began. Fun and fire lasted decades until Hugh died three years ago. Viv missed him every day and said so every day.

Whilst living in Wimbledon, Vivien secured a place at RADA. The power of convention of post war Britain was such that Viv did not take up her place at RADA and trained as a secretary instead. Such was her exuberant personality, quick wit and multi-tasking ability that she became PA to the general manager of The Ritz Hotel. She was highly socially organised and her ever expanding address book and diary fizzed with endless new friends and new events.

Hugh and Viv married in 1967 in Kingston Vale. Moving around from hospital to hospital, Daniel (1969) and Matthew (1971) were born. In 1972 the family of four moved to Barford. Philippa (1974) was born at The John Radcliffe and finally in 1976 her youngest daughter Harriett arrived. All survive.

Mum naturally took her place as a much-loved member of the Oxfordshire community. Good times were made making homes and friends in Barford, South Newington and ultimately Deddington, where she will stay forever.

Vivien’s predominant talent was for art. In fact, not pursuing drama spurred her into painting, drawing, sculpting and her favourite medium: pastels. Vivien put on many exhibitions, from a multitude of shows around Oxfordshire to MoMA in Oxford and Edith Grove in Chelsea.

Laughter filled the gallery at all her shows, flutes of fizz, with her trademark lipstick stamped on the rim, were taken and framed pictures by VOD were regularly dotted with the red ‘sold’ stickers. Dozens of walls in Deddington and beyond are adorned with Vivien's vibrant sense of colour and unrestrained expression of depictions of the movement, humour and energy she saw in everyday life.

Vivien played tennis competitively in ladies tennis tournaments at the West Adderbury Tennis Club. She later trained as a magistrate and served in the Oxford Court. Here she brought much valued empathy and compassion, and her impish humour, to the serious role of listening to, and sanctioning, those most in need of the state’s formal attention. Once this attention was offered in the opposite direction: a renowned car thief was temporarily released from his cell on the strict understanding that he would use his skills in retrieving Vivien’s car keys, which she accidentally locked inside her Morris Minor. Justice was served.

Vivien’s compassionate nature compelled her to take up any work that would help others. Sue Ryder, Katharine House, Oxfam and many other good causes. The last picture Vivien created was a commission for ‘Hope For Ukraine’ - a Deddington based support group spear-headed by the mighty Fynn Watt, who has been awarded the highest civilian honour a volunteer can receive from the Ukrainian military. The auctioning of Vivien’s final picture will be a posthumous act of compassion to help those less fortunate than herself. If you are interested in supporting Driving Ukraine – https://drivingukraine.org - by acquiring this picture (a beach-scape that invokes the flag of Ukraine), contact Jenny Soddy on the email address - [email protected]

Vivien was just as cosmopolitan as her mother, and helped run the Deddington French Club, but more than this Vivien could speak everybody’s language. Vivien listened to and understood everyone. She spoke to others as if it were they who were the most engaging person in the room; it was they who had made people laugh; it was they who widened everyone's outlook and it was their joie-de-vivre that lifted everyone. When in fact: it was always Vivien.

This is perhaps the abiding reason why Viv will be loved and remembered for as long as the living memory of her friends persists, and in pictures and photographs thereafter.

Her spirit lives on in her friends, her art and her grandchildren.

Viv’s funeral and celebration of a life well lived is at 3pm Friday, June 27, St Peter's and St Paul's Church, Deddington. All are welcome. Afterwards, in the Deddington Arms her community will raise a glass to Vivien Rich.