The woman who founded an Australian industry in the lounge-room of her Glen Iris home - public-speaking queen Joan Saxton - has died in a Camberwell age-care centre aged 95. Mrs Saxton, a gifted speaker born in Liverpool, pioneered the now-lucrative lectern business from 1965 when she began signing up the best speakers in Victoria to talk for cash. 
There was staunch resistance at first - "No one had charged for speaking before that," said Mrs Saxton - but  conferences and organisations soon realised that if they wanted the top performers at the microphone, they would have to pay for them. The Joan Saxton Speakers Agency eventually represented personalities and celebrities Australia-wide, all managed from that same suburban home via a small carbon-copy docket book - one pink booking sheet for the speaker, a copy for the client and another for her.
She limited her team of speakers to 120 but they included most of the popular names - such as media personalities Peter Couchman, Phillip Adams and Kevin Arnett; publisher Ita Buttrose; sports identity Tony Rafferty and RSL chief Bruce Ruxton. Mrs Saxton was fiercely protective of her speakers and relentless at promoting their talents.
At one stage Sydney agent Harry M Miller opened a Melbourne office and tried to poach some of her top names, mistakenly believing this "old lady" would be a push-over. He soon packed up and returned home, tail between legs. Mrs Saxton's speakers were as loyal to her as she was to them.
In 1971 she launched the Joan Saxton Lecture Luncheon Club at the 9 Darling Street reception centre in South Yarra, where she was able to treat guests to some of her stable's talent at modest cost. It was also a handy venue to give prospective new speakers a trial run. The luncheon club - still bearing her name - continues to be held each month, now at the Gables in East Malvern.
In 1988 Mrs Saxton sold her speaking business to friends Nanette and Winston Broadbent, who have built the renamed Saxton Speakers Bureau into an international enterprise, retaining the friendly personal touch but, through modern-day necessity, replacing Mrs Saxton's endearingly quaint docket-book system with computers.
Until last year when she became too frail, Mrs Saxton continued to attend her luncheon club, addressing her guests from the head table. Born Joan Beers, daughter of a British railway stationmaster, she had starred at the lectern at school before winning the world speaking title in Calgary, Canada. Her beautifully modulated voice, authoritative yet warm, made her a natural at the microphone.  Joan Saxton came to live in Australia n the 1960s after meeting and marrying Melbourne engineer Dick Saxton in Penang. Her husband and both their sons, John and Clive, pre-deceased her.