On Wednesday she passed away having led a full and rewarding life, one that enriched the life of countless other people well beyond her family. Doreen Mullen, the actress, was known for her many roles in Lieder Theatre productions.

Theatre director Chrisjohn Hancock paid tribute to a “wonderful supporter of the Lieder.”

“She was extraordinarily generous of spirit, a bit like a mum to all of us, aware of our personal and intellectual needs,” he said on Friday.

“Doreen made everyone feel welcome and most of all she helped to establish the Lieder as what we are today, an extraordinarily strong ensemble that is the Lieder family.

“She will be very much missed by everybody including the Youth Theatre members who she had a lot of time for and enjoyed encouraging.”

Doreen moved to Goulburn in 1993 and started soon afterwards as the front of house manager at the Lieder.

But she quickly moved into acting and appeared in many shows including Dinkum Assorted, Hating Alison Ashley, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Macbeth, Oliver Twist, Hamlet, The Man Who…, Gathering the Dust, La Dispute, MAB, The Wind in the Willows, Under Milkwood, The Tempest, and Dark of the Moon, Grimm Tales, Gathering the Dust, G'Day Mate, Forks'n All, Stan Henderson's Old Time Music Hall, The Vagina Monologues, The Ballad of Mary Ann Brownlow, Minefields and Miniskirts, Babes in the Wood and Inheritance.

She also toured the Czech Republic with the Lieder in 1998 in On The Bridge and attended the Mondial Theatre Festival last year in Monaco in The Colour Play.

They also toured France and Spain. In February, 2010 she appeared as Violet in Waiting for the Telegram, an Alan Bennett monologue, which is part of his Talking Heads 2 series.

Lieder artistic director Chrisjohn Hancock said Doreen had “the emotional experience to play the lead” of Violet, who is 95 and in a nursing home. “She was absolutely extraordinary in this role,” he said.

Doreen also performed in three films, The Beat Manifesto for the Australian Film and Television School, Dead Letters for Zodiac Films and in 2005 with Heath Ledger in Candy. Born in 1922, she grew up in the small village of Maybank near Newcastle Upon Lyme in North Staffordshire.

In a 2010 Goulburn Post interview she spoke of her childhood and journey through life. Doreen’s mother was a pianist and her father “had a lovely tenor voice,” and they sang together.

“One of my memories as a child is of singing. The wireless was not as frequent as it is today. You heard people whistling in the streets,” she said.

She had a love of the theatre from a young age and made her debut as a seven-year-old in a church play.

“We sang hymns on the stage while the Salvation Army Band played - it was called walking the rounds and you did it in your Sunday best,” she said.

At 13 she formed ‘The Backyard Gang’ with children in her neighbourhood and they gave successful benefit concerts.

“My uncle Enoch provided the music and mum helped with the costumes,” she said. In World War Two, she joined the Royal Navy as a switchboard operator and was stationed at Dover and Folkestone.

“We were in the front line because the Germans were only 21 miles away across the English Channel,” she said.

“They bombed the hell out of us with V1 flying bombs because they were convinced the D-Day invasion would come from that area.” She was also stationed at Machrihanish, near the Mull of Kintyre in 1945. She continued her acting during the war, appearing in theatrical productions designed to entertain the troops. “In one show I was tap dancing - that’s how I got the nickname Shirley Temple,” she said.

She met her husband, Donald at Folkestone during the war.

They had four children - Andrew, Anthony, Alison and John. After the war her acting took a back step because she was too busy working as a nurse and a midwife with four children of her own at Newcastle Upon Lyme. She and Donald came to Australia in 1961.

“Donald was a registered nurse. He was brought out by the Australian Government due to shortages of nurses and teachers then,” she said.

The family stayed and worked in Sydney until they moved to a farm near Marulan in 1973. Doreen worked as a housemistress at Frensham School at Mittagong. They moved to Goulburn in 1993 and Donald died in 2005.

“We were married for almost 60 years,” she said. “Another seven months and we would have had a letter from the Queen (to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary).”

Doreen was proud of the role she played in World War Two and would regularly march and attend the ANZAC and Armistice Day Services.

It was also her way of showing her respect for all the other service men and women. Doreen Mullen will be remembered by the many hundreds of people whose lives she touched, especially her three sons, Anthony, Jon and Andrew Mullen and daughter, Alison Robertson, her grandchildren, Yolanda Griffin, David Robertson, Faith Mullen and Eve Mullen and great granddaughter Emily Griffin. Her funeral service will be held at St Saviour’s Cathedral at 2pm tomorrow.