Queenstown hospitality pioneer Iris (101) and her husband Jim will be forever remembered by the naming of the infamous O’Connell’s Hotel, now the location of the resorts O’Connells Shopping Centre. The couple moved from Invercargill in 1937 but business was a struggle with the onset of World War II. After the war, business picked up with the Government organising free holidays for returned servicemen. Jim died in 1995, and Iris is survived by five children, 27 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. She had spent 70 years in Queenstown and her final three years in a Dunedin rest-home.