Flora O'Dea (nee Taylor) carried on the good work of her ancestors from a young age while being "quite modern for her time", according to family.

Mrs O'Dea died recently after celebrating her 100^th birthday in Bracken House, where she lived for six years.

Her adventures and achievements across a long life included meeting King George VI when a young woman living In London, and running the office at the Edgell's farm near Dubbo after her marriage to Ron O'Dea.

The centenarian was born in the front bedroom of parents Harold (Chook) and Florence (Daisy) Taylor's home in Dubbo in 1920 when the city's population was about 6000 and the family had a "drip safe made of hessian".

Her father sold Buick and then Ford vehicles for more than 80 years and operated an NRMA branch for more than 50 years.

Young Flora attended Dubbo Public School, Dubbo High School and Abbotsleigh in Sydney, where she read novels "instead of practising the piano".

She had the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of her great grandfather George Taylor who arrived in Dubbo in 1862 and became its first solicitor.

"I was sensible enough to realise I would make a terrible solicitor, as I would be fighting cases on moral grounds instead of legal," Mrs O'Dea wrote in a memoir written for her only surviving daughter Ellen Mortimore, grandchildren Alexandra and James, and great granddaughter Josefina.

After school she enrolled in a business course and became a "social butterfly" until both World War II and her future husband grabbed her attention.

At the age of 18, the then Flora Taylor became assistant commandant and then commandant with the Red Cross' Voluntary Aid Detachment in Dubbo.

"Most of my voluntary aid work was done at the hospital to relieve the shortage of nurses and for the first time I realised how fulfilling helping others is and to earn one's own livelihood could be," she wrote.

At the same time she encountered a "charming" Ron O'Dea who she wrote to regularly during the six years he fought in the war.

In 1956, at the age of 35, Flora Taylor married her 42-year-old beau at St Mark's Church in Sydney's Darling Point.

Long before the nuptials, she had been prevented from enlisting by virtue of her position as a teller and then a savings manager in the Commonwealth Bank.

"..the Commonwealth Bank was the only bank manpowered," she wrote. "Women were necessary to replace the men in the bank who had gone to war."

Flora Taylor worked in Dubbo, Adelaide and Sydney across about 18 years, including the war years.

Soon after it ended, she sailed to London and was employed by a firm of accountants.

The young woman's tour of the battered English capital and "the continent" convinced her it took "two to tango" in any conflict, and artworks such as Rembrandt's The Night Watchman looked better when an original and not a print.

During her two years abroad she met a king and kept her composure having previously been told by her mother "the Queen doesn't cry and neither must you".

"I was privileged to be presented to King George VI and attend two days in the royal enclosure at Ascot," Mrs O'Dea wrote at the age of 85.

Flora and Ron O'Dea were married for more than 50 years, with Ellen born four years before the tragic loss of second daughter Catherine four days after her birth.

They lived at 'Immarna' in the Rawsonville district, a property acquired by Mr O'Dea before World War II and held by him for 65 years.

Brian Pattinson, manager of the Edgell's farm where Flora worked in administration for 13 years, tells of the couple's commitment to the Rawsonville community through involvement in its hall and carnival, for which Mr O'Dea was ringmaster and later patron.

As a volunteer, Mrs O'Dea supported multiple organisations across her lifetime including the Red Cross, Torchbearers for Legacy, the National Trust and its Dubbo homestead Dundullimal where she was a guide.

She also kept up the Taylor family's more than 100-year-old tradition of presenting the dux medals at Dubbo Public School and Dubbo High School, now Dubbo College.

At the centenary celebrations of The NSW Nationals in 2019, Mrs O'Dea was acknowledged as the second-longest living member of the party having joined in September 1945.

"Perhaps her greatest commitment was to be available at any time to any person in need of support through the AA and Al-Anon organisations," Mr Pattinson wrote in a eulogy for his friend.

"Here she was able to influence changes in the lives of many people."

Mrs O'Dea went to work at the Edgell's farm during trying times on the land and "to save money by not going to town".

Mr Pattinson welcomed her as a "mentor".

"I was just 30 years old when I became manager of what, for many years, was the largest employer in Dubbo, and having Flora's trust and support was a great help in those days," he said.

Mr Pattinson said the hundreds of people who worked at the farm watched their language when entering the office "because of the influence of Flora and the standard she set".

Mrs O'Dea and her husband retired and moved to Dubbo in 1995 before his death in 2008 at the age of 94.

"Flora was always caring for people, her father, mother, brother George and husband Ron, when he most needed her help," Mr Pattinson said.

"She was the rock on whom they could depend."

Flora O'Dea enjoyed gardening, bridge, reading and "anything cultural".

She has been called by loyal friends and family pragmatic, a wonderful hostess, wise, caring, optimistic and resilient.

Her memoir reflects strength of character and gratitude.

"Apart from Catherine's death and a cracked hip I've had a clear run health wise and over 50 years of happy marriage," she wrote.

Brian Pattinson says his friend had "a life so wonderfully lived".