Soldier Remembers Their Dance 45 Years Ago--to Tune of $100,000

One dance with a lonely soldier 45 years ago has brought housewife Evelyn Stewart $100,000, left to her in the will of a reclusive man who died and named her the sole beneficiary of his estate.

“There was never a hug or a kiss, no romance or anything like that. I suppose I was simply a friend when he needed one,” she said after lawyers tracked her down to tell her she was the beneficiary of Laurie Delaney’s will.

Delaney, who led a hermit’s life, died three years ago leaving a farm worth more than $66,000 and almost $30,000 in savings.

Stewart, now a mother of three, said she hoped to use the money to turn the property into a holiday camp for terminally ill children.

But she can’t remember the man she danced with one winter’s night in a hall at Frankston, Victoria.

“I have tried so hard to put a face to the name, but I can’t,” she said.