Joy Cummings

Joyce Anne Cummings, ( Plumbe; 23 December 1923 – 1 July 2003) was an Australian politician. She was the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, and Australia's first female Lord Mayor, from 1974 to 1976 and again from 1977 until 1984, when she retired from politics following a severe stroke.

Personal life Cummings was born Joyce Anne Plumbe on 23 December 1923 at Ramsgate, New South Wales, to Charlotte and Dallas Plumbe. She moved to the Newcastle area at the onset of the Second World War when her father, a fireman, was transferred to the Scott Street Brigade. It was here that she met and married Ray Cummings, who was also a fireman, together raising a family of four children.

Cummings is the maternal grandmother of actress Sarah Wynter.

Political career Cummings became a member of the Australian Labor Party in 1938, at the age of 15,

Cummings was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1975 and awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001.

Death Joy Cummings died at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle's New Lambton Heights on 1 July 2003. The promenade plaque states that Cummings "presided over a period of change, as Newcastle shed its heavy industrial base to become to the city of beauty, vibrancy and diversity that it is today." The bust was created by Mudgee-based sculptor and artist Margot Stephens and was overseen by Newcastle City Council.