Mary shares birthday with anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day August 15, 1945
A FATHER was on his way to announce the safe arrival of his second child when he was stopped in his tracks.
Out in the streets, there was singing and dancing and big celebrations.
"Dad said his first thought was ... 'surely that can't be just because a daughter was born?'" Mary Woolfe said.
Now 75, Mary (nee Hooper) was one of thousands of "peace babies" born on August 15, 1945 - VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day, marking the end of World War II.
She was born in Taree, a country town on the mid-North Coast of NSW.
Mary was her parents' second child, with a son born three years earlier.
Her mother Joyce was a Nelson, of the local hardware store. Her father John (Jack) was a gunner during the war but was back in Taree for Mary's birth, after stints in hospital in South Australia and Concord, Sydney.
The matron at the hospital suggested the newborn should be named "Victoria Peace", marking victory and the end of the war.
However she was named Mary Elizabeth, after her grandmothers, Mary Nelson and Elizabeth Hooper.
Mary left Taree when she was 15 and now lives at Hill Top in the NSW Southern Highlands.
PEACE: How The Manning River Times reported the end of war after almost six years, while the world welcomed Mary Woolfe ((nee Hooper).