{"id":11186,"date":"2025-07-26T15:06:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T14:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/?page_id=11186"},"modified":"2025-07-26T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T14:25:26","slug":"brenda-hillier","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/about-our-club\/inspirational-members\/brenda-hillier\/","title":{"rendered":"Brenda Hillier 1931- 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Brenda Hillier \u00a01931- 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1995-Brenda-Hillier-Soroptimist-St-Albans-President.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-11193\" src=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1995-Brenda-Hillier-Soroptimist-St-Albans-President-e1753539588632-171x300.jpg\" alt=\"1995 Brenda Hillier Soroptimist St Albans President\" width=\"114\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1995-Brenda-Hillier-Soroptimist-St-Albans-President-e1753539588632-171x300.jpg 171w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1995-Brenda-Hillier-Soroptimist-St-Albans-President-e1753539588632.jpg 466w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 114px) 100vw, 114px\" \/><\/a>A Soroptimist stalwart described as &#8220;a tour de force in the community&#8221; was laid to rest on the same day as HM The Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda Hillier, who died on August 29 at the age of 91, was Club President of Soroptimist International St Albans and District in 1988\/89 and 1995\/6 and club secretary and regional officer for many years, and was described as an inspiration to many during this time. Brenda was a strong proponent of women helping women.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1987-Brenda-Hillier-Herts-Advertiser.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-11191\" src=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1987-Brenda-Hillier-Herts-Advertiser-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"1987 Brenda Hillier Herts Advertiser\" width=\"200\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1987-Brenda-Hillier-Herts-Advertiser-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/1987-Brenda-Hillier-Herts-Advertiser.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>She featured regularly in the pages of the Herts Advertiser over the years \u2013 please see the scanned newspaper clip about her work in the local community.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda and her family lived in Redbourn \u00a0for 40 years, and she was a central figure in the village. A renowned cook, there were always extras at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/006-Brenda-The-Barbecue-August-2001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-11192\" src=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/006-Brenda-The-Barbecue-August-2001-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Brenda Hillier Barbecue Redbourn August 2001\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>dinner table and anyone was welcome, a tradition that she maintained throughout her life. Her barbecues were legendary \u2013 often raising much-needed funds for local causes.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda was a founder member of the Redbourn Association, aimed at creating a village environment, and it worked. Redbourn triumphantly resisted the threat of being swallowed up by neighbouring towns. \u201cAsk Brenda\u201d became a byword in Redbourn and, when the prayed-for-bypass was opened, she used her skills to organise a street party in the High Street, which up to that moment had put fear and dread into pedestrians.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/05-Jean-Brenda-Hilary-OBE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10761\" src=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/05-Jean-Brenda-Hilary-OBE-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/05-Jean-Brenda-Hilary-OBE-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/05-Jean-Brenda-Hilary-OBE.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>After her husband died in 2004 she moved to California to be closer to her daughters, dying peacefully of natural causes with her daughter Carol by her side.<\/p>\n<p>She would help anyone who needed help. Some of her favourite sayings were &#8216;take life as it comes&#8217; and &#8216;when one door shuts another one opens&#8217;. She said she only believed in looking forward. She loved connecting with people and made many lifelong friends at all stages of her life.<\/p>\n<p>The photo above is from when <span class=\"markadcz9bjmu\" data-markjs=\"true\" data-ogac=\"\" data-ogab=\"\" data-ogsc=\"\" data-ogsb=\"\">Brenda<\/span> (centre) was on one of her many visits back to the UK and visited the St Albans Soroptimist Club in 2014 (Jean Eaton is on the left and Hilary Ratcliffe OBE on the right) &#8211; the Club was celebrating Hilary&#8217;s OBE for services to women&#8217;s equality internationally.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda was still making friends in her assisted living home up until she died, and was loved by all the staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brenda Hillier \u00a01931- 2022 A Soroptimist stalwart described as &#8220;a tour de force in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":1785,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11186","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brenda Hillier 1931- 2022 | SI St Albans and District | SIGBI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SIGBI : SI St Albans and District : Brenda Hillier 1931- 2022 : SI St Albans and District is part of a worldwide organisation of women, find more information regarding the Brenda Hillier 1931- 2022 here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/about-our-club\/inspirational-members\/brenda-hillier\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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