Juanita Coco
Encyclopedia
Juanita Suzanne Coco was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n singer and actress best known for her role on the popular talent/variety show Young Talent Time
Young Talent Time
Young Talent Time is an Australian television variety program screened on Network Ten, running from 1971 until 1988. The series features a core group of young performers in the vein of The Mickey Mouse Club, and a weekly junior talent quest. The "Young Talent Team" regularly performed popular...

in the late 1980s. She appeared on the show from 1987 to 1988, aged 13, and was best known for her rendition of the song 'La Bamba
La Bamba (song)
"La Bamba" is a Mexican folk song, originally from the state of Veracruz, best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens, a top 40 hit in the U.S. charts and one of early rock and roll's best-known songs...

'.

Death

On 2 May 1993, Juanita Coco attended her boyfriend's birthday party in North Melbourne. At the end of the evening she got into a Subaru wagon driven by a female friend of another guest, accompanied by her boyfriend and his best friend Brad Lacy and two other friends.

As the vehicle travelled along Malvern Road, Malvern
Malvern, Victoria
Malvern is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 8 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington. At the 2006 Census, Malvern had a population of 9,422.-History:...

, it ran a red traffic light and was broadsided by another vehicle travelling at high speed. Sitting in the back seat, Juanita and Brad Lacy were killed instantly due to the force of the impact. The driver survived with no injuries and Juanita's boyfriend survived with serious injuries. Juanita was 17 when she died.

The subsequent investigation found that the driver of the Subaru was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

charges were later dropped in court.

Legacy

Juanita's mother Jenny Coco and her husband Patrick formed "The Friends of the Donor Tissue Bank of Victoria" following Juanita's donation of heart valve and corneas. Jenny, accommpanied by a scientist from the Tissue Bank, gave many talks to groups about the personal side of tissue donation and the importance of discussing it with family. Ever since her death, her former high school (St Helena Secondary College) has presented "The Juanita Coco Award": awarded to the person (or persons in rare cases) who avidly carry on the spirit of Coco in the annual St Helena Secondary musical production. The award represents leadership, ability and compassion: all features Coco bought proudly to St Helena. The most recent winner of the award is Donald Boreham for the 2011 production of Les Misérables: School Edition.

External links

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