One of Aberdeen’s biggest theatre stalwarts, Liz Milne has died following a battle with ovarian cancer.
The co-founder of Phoenix Theatre and Phoenix Youth Theatre died on Monday at her Milltimber home with her husband and children by her side.
Due to the many years of having a hand in over 100 productions and teaching at Harlaw Academy, Liz was beloved and seen as a mother to many.
Her family has paid tribute to the hard-working, sharp-witted and loved mother-of-three.
Liz Milne: A very bright but rebellious teen
Elizabeth Milne, known as Liz, was born on June 28 1951 as Liz Allan.
Liz was the only daughter of Douglas Allan, who was a draftsman in Carnoustie, and his wife Mable who worked as a clerkess (or an accountant in today’s terms).
While Liz did not have any siblings, her family all stayed in the Carnoustie and Arbroath area including her cousin John.
The pair were often getting into trouble – well, Liz persuading John to do “bad things” and getting him into bother.
When her parents moved to Arbroath, Liz attended Arbroath High where she was described as bright but “very rebellious”.
On one of her last days at the secondary school, the self-proclaimed swot in everything apart from maths was nearly expelled after almost helping put a teacher’s boat in a tree.
Despite being honest and not getting involved, she was stripped of her badges.
Angry at the injustice, she sewed them back on just in time to shake the head teacher’s hand proudly after receiving a prize.
Finding love at Aberdeen University in a ‘handsome rugby player’
When it was time to go to university, Liz decided to follow her high school boyfriend to Aberdeen.
However, it was not long before “the poor soul was dumped” after she met the “smart, handsome rugby player” Dr Robert Milne – known as Bob – from Dundee in her Hillhead accommodation.
Pulled in by similar interests and similar quick wits, the friendship soon blossomed into something more and the pair were married in an Arbroath church in July 1975.
Their honeymoon was spent camping around Scotland, something which ended up becoming a family tradition in later years.
Throughout her time at university, Liz had taken some classes in drama taught by Annie Ingles and joined the drama company Attic.
It was there she met her best friend and co-founder of Phoenix, Clare Haggart.
The duo proved to be a formidable pairing and often claimed parts as leading ladies and dancers including in Guys and Dolls at HMT and Fiddler On The Roof.
After they got married, Liz and Bob moved into a flat on Holburn Street for five years before moving to Peterculter where Bob became a GP.
Another five years later, the couple moved to a house in Milltimber where they settled and Bob went on to help found Cults Medical Practice.
While juggling married life and her involvement with Attic, Liz was also a French and English teacher at Harlaw Academy.
Their miracle children and very busy Milltimber family home
In January 1982, everything changed when the couple welcomed their “miracle child” Jennie into the world after six years of infertility.
A few years later they welcomed a son Jonnie in 1988, and daughter Katie in 1991 – 10 days after Phoenix’s first production of Annie after Liz and Clare founded the company in 1990.
With Jennie’s birthday one day before Katie, her eldest daughter said she remembers her mum cleaning the house as soon as she was back from the hospital so Jennie could have a birthday party.
“She never stopped,” said her son Jonnie.
Between their parent’s jobs and Phoenix Theatre, he added: “It was a very busy house.
“It’s been non-stop. The theatre side of things has been our life.
“And because of that family atmosphere that mum and her partner Clare have created a bit Phoenix, it became our extended family…[and many] who all see mum as a surrogate mum.
“Mum would always tell the story of when I was a preteen and a few girls from my year came around under the guise of coming to see me but then spent the entire time chatting with mum.
“And I got really really grumpy going ‘No, she’s my mum, she’s not your mum’.
“But looking back it’s so lovely.”
Turning cancer treatment into silver lining… and teapot costume
With Phoenix, if Liz wasn’t on stage she was madly sewing all the costumes for each production.
Her children learned growing up it was all hands on deck with theatre being the “family business”. Her husband Bob was even pulled into helping make sets and take photos of the productions.
This continued even after she was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer last autumn.
And she would always find a way to look at the bright side of things.
Even when she was “wheeched off” to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary a week before Phoenix’s Beauty and the Beast last month and had her arm in a sling, her silver lining was turning the sling into a teapot costume for Mrs Potts.
In 2019, she and Clare received British Empire Medals (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for their work as co-directors of the Phoenix Theatre and Phoenix Youth Theatre.
Liz left ‘overwhelmed’ by honouring of HMT seat
Described by someone at Phoenix as a “mother to all of us as well”, her family, Phoenix family and past students helped raise money for a seat plaque at His Majesty’s Theatre in celebration of her 73rd birthday.
Also raising over £3,000 for Friends of Anchor who helped Liz through her treatment, she said at the time she could not stop crying on the day.
Speaking to the P&J just a few weeks ago, she said: “I’m overwhelmed by the amount of messages and the things that people have said.
“I just couldn’t believe it. It was amazing.”
Aware of the limited time she had left, Liz said she was grateful for all she had experienced in life, her family and her two grandchildren Waverly and Grace.
At the time, she added: “I’ve had a wonderful, wonderful life and how many people get to live to 73? You’ve got to be glass half full.
“I would have loved a bit longer…I would have loved to have seen Gracie grow up a bit more and my other grandchild in Canada as well, Waverley.
“But if it’s not to be, it’s not to be. We could all get run down by a bus tomorrow so just be thankful for what you’ve been given.”
The vivacious reader was surrounded by family and her favourite book playing
If she was not sewing, being a mum or teacher, Liz usually had a book or Kindle in her hands.
Whenever anyone was down, Liz’s slogan was “There’s always another book to read”.
Filling every room of their Milltimber home bar the bathroom and the kitchen with books, it was a love she passed onto her children.
Her favourite authors were Tess Gerritsen, Terry Prachett, Stephen King and Patrick Dennis.
So much so, as things got worse and her condition regressed, she suggested downloading the Audible versions of Terry Pratchett’s books which she saw as “very witty but good-hearted”.
Jonnie said: “As things were getting worse towards the end, about a week to go, Mum sat me down and said ‘What I want more than anything… as I’m starting to become more unresponsive, I don’t want silence.
“‘Yes I want you all speaking to me but also here’s my phone, go get Audible or something and put Terry Pratchett audiobooks on here.
“‘And what I want to drift off to is the sound of Terry Pratchett stories’, which we were able to give her.
“I think she got through about five from us putting them on.
“It was Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, which was the one that she drifted off to in the end. Which is lovely, because it’s one of her favourites. And it’s literally my favourite book.
“She lived for those books. The fact they were able to help see her into the hereafter was really, really special.”
For her last present moments, the family were gathered in the living room – including her oldest daughter Jennie who flew over from Canada to be there – eating pizza, watching TV and having a “real good laugh together”.
“It was such a lovely time, mum sitting back and just occasionally with a big smile on her face,” Jonnie added. “And that was a very, very touching moment to have.”
‘We’ve each got different parts of mum in us’
The mum, wife and grandma died surrounded by her husband and children.
Paying tribute to their mum, her children said they each had different parts of their mum in them. Jennie her mum’s sensational organisation skills, Jonnie her empathy and Katie Liz’s famous stubbornness.
Each wanting to pay tribute, Jennie added: “It has been overwhelming reading through all the loving messages mum has received over the last few months, from people she has known down the years.”
Katie said: “She has touched so many lives. It’s an incredible legacy that we’ll always be proud of and strive to live up to.”
Jonnie added: “Her British Empire Medal will take pride of place, and we’ll be telling her grandchildren stories of their fierce and funny grandma for years to come.”
The funeral will be held on August 1 at 9.45am, at the West Chapel of Aberdeen Crematorium, and following on at the Chester Hotel.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Friends of Anchor.
There will be a livestream for those who cannot make it in person.
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