South Yorkshire Times and Express — April 26, 1952

Thurnscoe Girl Likes Brazil

Home On Leave But Going Back

From life as a shop assistant throughout Yorkshire to a life of leisure under the hot sun of Brazil has been the experience of a Thurnscoe woman, Mrs Connie Whitehouse (née Gannon).

Mrs. Whitehouse revisited Thurnscoe on Friday, after being in South America for three years, to see her grandmother, Mrs Florence Green, of 38, Queen Street. She is now staying in Skegness with her husband and son but will be back in Thurnscoe to see Mrs Green again at Whitsuntide.

Flew Atlantic

Mrs Whitehouse was brought up by her grandmother, and lived for most of her life in Thurnscoe until she began work as a shop assistant in such towns as Huddersfield, Bridlington and Driffield. It was in Driffield that she met and married her husband, Mr Douglas Whitehouse, an electrical engineer.

Just over three years ago Mr Whitehouse was sent by his firm to Brazil to supervise electrical maintenance work for a period of ten years. Some months after he had gone, Mrs Whitehouse flew out to join him, with her son Martyn, then about twelve months old.

Now they find they are enjoying life out there so much that they say they are unlikely to come back to England, except for occasional leaves, like this one, which lasts until July.

They are living in a large house in Rio de Janeiro with a perfect view of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, and overlooking the harbour. And Mrs Whitehouse, who was 27 on Monday, has succumbed gracefully and gratefully to a life of comparative luxury and ease.

She gets plenty of opportunity for travel and for seeing the country, going round to outlying ranches and towns occasionally with her husband. She finds plenty of entertainment and things to see in Rio, especially as she now speaks Portuguese quite fluently — along with Martyn, who is also bi-lingual.

She has opportunity for relaxation, too, as she has a maid to do the housework, and a nurse to look after Martyn. Martyn is not without English company, either, for he is often found playing with the children of other English residents. Mrs Whitehouse is also learning to drive her husband’s car — a car which, she says, “would take up half of Queen Street” in size.

Some things in Brazil are fantastically expensive to English eyes, of course, with steak at ten shillings a pound and pepper at five shillings an ounce, for instance, but food is unrationed and there is plenty of it. As evidence there is a large tin of Brazilian butter in Mrs Green’s larder at the moment.

Mrs Whitehouse goes back to Rio in July for another seven years — and probably many more years after that.