FRANCES Coolahan led an extraordinary life flying planes and rubbing shoulders with royalty and the leading lights of the Paris fashion scene in the 1960s and 1970s.
But it was an ordinary trip home from her regular visit with her family that led to the 80-year-old grandmother's death in a car accident on the Charlestown bypass at the weekend.
Mrs Coolahan spent Saturday as she always did - looking after her six-year-old grandson Reilly at Redhead before driving home to West Wallsend.
Neither the police nor Mrs Coolahan's family are certain of her exact route but somehow she made a wrong turn, ending up driving, in the rain, on the wrong side of the road along the Charlestown bypass towards Hillsborough Road.
Her Toyota Corolla collided head-on with a BMW station wagon at 7.40pm about 450 metres south of the Hillsborough Road intersection.
Mrs Coolahan died at the scene while the two occupants of the BMW suffered minor injuries.
The road was closed for several hours.
Mrs Coolahan's daughter Katherine Barrett said her mother, affectionately known as Weenie, led an extraordinary and energetic life.
Originally from Sydney's North Shore, she lived in Paris, London and the US, in 1961 marrying Percy Savage, a man described as a maverick of the Paris fashion scene in the 1960s.
The couple divorced in 1965, but Mrs Coolahan continued to lead the high life by gaining her pilot's licence and becoming an avid traveller.
She loved hats and they became a feature of her outfits for evenings at the opera or a day at the races at Royal Ascot.
"She worked in Paris and London in the fashion industry and became a bit of a celebrity over there," Mrs Barrett said.
"She knew princes, she dined with royalty, she had the most amazing stories, but she was a very private person."
Mrs Barrett said her mother moved to West Wallsend several years ago to be closer to her family, especially Reilly.
She became well known in her adopted suburb and continued to work tirelessly.
"She broke her hip last year cleaning the council gutters," Mrs Barrett said.
"She loved her garden and she [recently] dug a trench so she could have a pipe or a drain installed."
Percy Savage died in London in 2008.
A movie about his life, titled A Savage Life in Fashion, was released after his death.
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