Letty Katts

Katts was born in 1919, the only daughter of Anton Katts (22 January 1888 – March 1952) and Lucretia Katts, née Pimblett, who married on 11 June 1921.

Anton was born in Ostrog, Russia, (perhaps Ostrog, Šentjernej) and in 1912 left as a refugee for Australia, and founded a radiator repair and sheet metal fabrication shop "King & Katts" at 623 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, Queensland.

Violet Katts (3 January 1919 – 19 September 2007 ), was an Australian songwriter who published under the name Letty Katts, often spelled Lettie.

Katts married John Stanton Davis Mellick (born 22 February 1920), on 8 December 1941.

Katts worked as a music teacher while her husband was overseas during the War.

Known as Stanton, or Stan, Mellick, he had a distinguished career in the army, and was promoted to Major.

After the war he studied pharmacy, and had a successful practice in the town.

Around 1925 they built a large house, "Roseneath", in Enoggera where Letty grew up.

Both parents were musicians: Anton played balalaika and mandolin; Lucretia was a pianist, and Katts had private piano tuition, initially with Constance Hartshorn, organist for the Enoggera Presbyterian church, then from around 1930 with John Ellis, who took out a newspaper advertisement when Kitts graduated ATCL and LTCL in 1939.

The State Library of Queensland now holds the Letty Katts collection, 1935-2006.

This collection documents the creative life of the Queensland composer and comprises compositions, arrangements, correspondence, certificates, newspaper clippings, personal items, video and sound recordings.

They had one daughter, Jill Mellick (born 29 August 1948).

Other published compositions include

Two high-profile compositions, mentioned in Narelle McCoy's presentation at the State Library (see External links, below) are:

She is best known for her songs "A Town Like Alice" (1956) and "Never Never" (1945), frequently referred to as "Riding to the Never Never".

Katts' compositions listed by the Australian Performing Right Association to 13 April 1988 are:

He later became a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland and was awarded an OAM in 2005.

The biennial Letty Katts Award was established by Stan Mellick in 2016 to support research into Queensland's music history, and consists of a grant of $5,000 plus three months' access to the Neil Roberts Research Lounge at the State Library of Queensland and free access to documents held by the library.

In 2020 it was awarded to Narelle McCoy, whose thesis was "Musicians Should Be Heard and Not Seen: the life and music of Letty Katts".