Thelma Hoctor was a fair dinkum farm girl from Glossodia near Windsor. Thel's rural upbringing ensured that she too came to love the earthy songs that reflected the daily way of life that she shared with millions of other Australians. Thel was a self-taught guitarist, and her music eventually brought her to the Bar-20 hillbilly Shows at Eden Park and then appearances on the Reg Lindsay and Slim Dusty Shows. It was at the Bar 20 shows that she met Rick Carey. Rick had acquired a good guitar from his prisoner of war father, and during his term with the Royal Australian Air Force Rick had been taught the instrument by a musical friend. Armed thus with their respective musical talents and country and western backgrounds, Rick and Thel began a musical and family partnership from which evolved one of the top three Australian country music travelling shows of the 1960s through to the mid 1980s.
They had a successful recording career with record labels Regal Zonophone Records, which became EMI, and then in later years with Hadley Records. Their popular songs include "She Was Happy Til She Met You", "I'll Never Be Fooled Again", "Looking Back to See", "You Can Say That Again", "White Crosses in the Jungle", "You Thought I Thought", "Rusted Love", "Fourteen Red Roses for Jenny", "He's a... She's a..." and "I'll Take the Dog" In 1977, Rick and Thel were part of the first group of Australian country performers to have their hands imprinted into the new Australian Country Music "Hands of Fame" monument in Tamworth. The act was forced to retire during the early 1980s when Thel developed cancer of the tongue. They lived in retirement in Denmark, Western Australia, until Thel died of her illness on the 2nd October 1998. Rick still lives in Denmark.
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