Rosemary Wighton was the daughter of Arthur Blackburn and his wife Rose (Kelly). She went to The Wilderness School, then graduated from the University of Adelaide with a BA Hons, tutoring in English in 1946 and tutoring part-time from 1950-58. She married Dugald Wighton in 1948, and they had five children.
With Max Harris she established the first Australian Book Review, and edited it 1961-71, including in it serious reviews of children's books. She wrote on Australian children's literature, publishing her pioneering work Early Australian Children's Literature in 1963. She lectured in the English Dept of the Salisbury CAE (1971-79) and was Senior Lecturer 1977-79.
Rosemary enjoyed a distinguished public career in service to a number of South Australian bodies including the State Theatre Company, the SA Planning Commission and the Board of Governors of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. She was Deputy Director-General of the Department of Community Welfare (1984-1990), followed Deborah McCulloch (qv) in the role of Adviser to the SA Government on Women's Affairs (1979-1984) serving under three different Premiers, chaired the Management Committee of the Women's Information Switchboard, chaired the Literature Board of the Australia Council (1984-1988) and chaired the Writers' Week Committee 1976-90. She was awarded an AO in 1990. She wrote for her children and grandchildren the story of the Blackburn family, Peeling the Onion: The Story of a Family (1993), and was working on her autobiography when she died of cancer in February 1994.
