Alva hailed from the townland of Kilnamuck two miles from Lisnamuck, and was a most popular figure on the local amateur drama scene during the Emergency. She also took part in several successful musical productions before being forced to emigrate to America in the 1950s, as the country was then in the very depths of a major recession. She initially worked in aircraft construction, then was employed as a technical writer in Bell Labs, and eventually as a senior project manager at that company. In 1971 she happened to be in a team that was working for one of the lab's biggest clients of the time, the consumer electronics firm Panasonic. Panasonic was in the throes of developing the first telephone answering machines for the general public, and it was Alva's task to write the now famous standardised outgoing message: 'This is an automatic telephone answering machine.' As she recalled for the Ballyhoo Examiner in 1983, 'It must have been about two minutes' work, and I was never paid anything extra for it, but how were we to know at the time that it would go on to become one of the most famous sayings of the 20th century?' Alva's messages stayed in common use well into the 1990s, and in 1982 Alva herself retired. Two years later she settled in Amsterdam, then Eindhoven. Deep sympathy in their bereavement is extended to Alva's sisters Marie and Eileen, and brothers Noel, Peter, Richard and Charles. Also deeply regretted by cousins Stella, Sheila and Addie, nephews, nieces, relatives and all her former colleagues at Bell Labs and Panasonic, and answering machine users everywhere. Her remains were buried on Monday November 18 in Greenside Cemetery, Ballyhoo, following funeral Mass in Our Lady of Perpetual Motion. -
Parish NotesOUR Lady of Perpetual Motion: I'm usually quite fortunate when it comes to sermon writing.