OBITUARY: Mike Minehan (Michele Blumsky): broadcaster and writer, March 8, 1947 – August 7, 2022.
Mike Minehan’s voice and empathetic warmth made her an audience favourite as she paved the way for women in talkback radio.
Minehan died peacefully in Christchurch, aged 75 years. She was a distinguished and respected broadcaster and writer, beloved wife of the late broadcaster John Blumsky and partner of the late poet James K Baxter.
Former radio colleague Barry Corbett said Minehan had fearless enthusiasm and huge intellect.
Minehan first started in radio in the 1970s and worked at 3ZB Christchurch in the 1980s and 90s with her husband John Blumsky, who was a pioneer in New Zealand radio.
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She was a finalist in the Mobil awards for best newsreader in 1980, as well as for her investigative journalism on the Minehan report.
“What a talent and what a voice,” Corbett said.
The Minehan Report was an investigative journalism slot focussing on Christchurch issues as part of the Robin Harrison show, and Minehan became known for her warm and personable interview techniques.
Everyone who worked with her loved her for her wry sense of humour, Corbett said.
“She took over from John on air and soon became an audience favourite. She was a pioneer for women in the male dominated world of on-air radio personalities,” he said.
“She was cool and calm on air. She had a warmth about her so that people felt like they could open up to her. They opened up to her because they knew she was empathetic and she would care. That is an important quality in investigative journalism. She wasn’t afraid to ask the hard-hitting questions, but she did it with care and consideration.”
Friend Jane Cath said Minehan was one of the kindest women she had ever known.
“In all the years we were friends, I can honestly say we never had cross words and I could always rely on her to take my part in any situation. Friends like that are few and far between,” said Cath.
“If I close my eyes I can still hear her wonderful laugh; deep and delicious.”
Friend of 30 years Celine Donovan, who also worked for Minehan and Blumsky when they owned the Rangiora bookshop Blums Books after retiring from radio, said Minehan was intensely interested in the New Zealand and international social and political world, being both a strong feminist and a pacifist.
She was an avid reader and lived in Waikuku Beach with Blumsky for many years, where she decorated her home in a stylish but bohemian and comfortable way.
“Her home smelled of patchouli. Every home they bought, they’d immediately paint black, install bookshelves in every available space, plant many trees, and set about making a beautiful garden with sculptures and bird baths. Mike was incredibly sophisticated, cultured and had a fabulous sense of humour.”
Minehan was a very private person.
“Although she loved visits with friends, she was happiest when she was reading, writing, or with John and her dogs. Mike loved her garden, music, particularly Leonard Cohen,” she said.
She moved into a rest home three years ago, Donovan said.
“Her room was like her home – it was just lovely, filled with books and art. She remained the same mentally, but her physical health deteriorated and she died suddenly but peacefully,” she said.
Publisher Quentin Wilson said he published five books by Minehan between 1991 and 2002, with the help Creative New Zealand publishing grants.
She was first published in 1972 in university newspapers and began writing full-time in 1988.
Minehan had poems published in Metro; Islands (Australia); Printout; Wrapper; Bogg; Poetry NZ; Ariel (USA); Ariel (Canada); Frost & Rails; Herstory; the Listener; MORE; Other Voices; Plainwraps; Poetry Australia; Spiral, and Takahe.
Her published books include No Returns (1989), Embracing the Dark (1991), Suicide Season (1997), Writing Lives – Ending Silences (2000) and The long hot summer singing (2001).
She wrote four volumes of poetry and in 2002 she wrote O Jerusalem, an intimate memoir of having a son with poet James K. Baxter who she lived with in the commune Jerusalem in the 1960s.
“From my very first reading of her work, I quite simply fell in love with her poetry. Very few works by the more than 50 poets I have published to date have moved me as deeply as those written by Mike Minehan,” Wilson said.
He said Minehan was shy of public appearances so for the launch of her second published volume, Embracing the Dark, Minehan read a selection of poems onto a tape which was played at the 1991 Dunedin writer’s festival.
“Unlike some, Mike, of course, was a natural at reading her own work. Those in that very full room at that Dunedin launch of Embracing the Dark sat in stunned silence when the tape stopped running. The tears were not in my eyes alone,” he said.
Wilson said Minehan was uncompromising in what she wrote and in her style of writing.
She pushed against the reader’s limits with a completely original voice that spoke of everything from girls being caught in the thrall of men and becoming the eternal daughters of their fathers, to family both close and extended, to grim subjects such as suicide, to ending the silences that bind.
“Mike was always a joy to work with and a friend indeed,” he said. “She was wonderful company and the discussion was exhilarating at all times.”
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