Those were the first words uttered on Albury television and the query referred to Olgamary Whelan, who hosted the opening show on AMV4 when it went on air on September 7, 1964.

The then 23 year-old had performed with the Albury Repertory Company before becoming hostess of Cohn's Cobbers' Teleclub which was due to start at 4.55pm.

Her late arrival at the studio in Lavington's Union Road prompted the station's film manager Bernard Harper to ask the question which became part of history.

Olgamary, who wed Melbourne pharmacist Haydn Savage in 1965 resulting in the end of her career at AMV4, is being mourned after dying at the age of 79 on the NSW south coast.

She was found to have ovarian cancer in 2010 and had several rounds of treatment that saw her exceed the usual five-year life expectancy after diagnosis.

The third of ten children and daughter of a policeman, the then Miss Whelan worked in Albury's library for three years before appearing on television.

She told The Border Morning Mail that gave her understanding of the likes and dislikes of children.

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Former library workmate Janet Freyer said her colleague, who also hosted a women's show called Roundabout, had great attributes for television.

"She was very attractive, she was tall, she had beautiful natural curly shortened hair," Mrs Freyer said.

"She did a very good job, she was well spoken."

Another friend Jeannie Scully (nee Walsh) recalled the television personality was a favourite of workers on the Snowy Mountains scheme.

It was through a television promotional outing to the Wangaratta races that Miss Whelan met Mr Savage and they wed six months later on Saturday November 6, 1965.

A photograph of the couple taken after the ceremony at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Albury appeared on the bottom of page eight of the following Tuesday's Border Morning Mail with reference to a large crowd gathering outside the building.

The couple made their home in Melbourne with their first child born in 1966.

Mrs Savage returned to television in the 1980s, conducting studio interviews for Sunday Magazine, a religious show aired on Channel 7.

She separated from her husband in 1987 and moved to the south coast in 1998.

Mrs Savage was president of a Labor Party branch and involved in social causes and school reading support.

She died on May 27 at Moruya and will be buried alongside sisters at Corowa.

Mrs Savage is survived by three children, Angela, Julian and Luke, three grandchildren and five siblings.