Tributes have been paid to former women’s editor Jean Davey, who has died aged 75.
Jean, who lived in Carlton, retired in 1989 after 40 years in journalism, including 31 years at the Nottingham Everning Post.
She
launched the newspaper’s Action Desk in 1974 and over the next 15 years
helped solve consumer problems for more than 66,000 readers.
Jean started her newspaper career in Northampton. She joined the Post in 1958 and became one of its top writers.
Related
She
edited the widely-read women’s page and one of her many moving articles
was an interview with Betty Wilson, widow of licensee George Wilson,
brutally stabbed outside a pub in Sneinton, sparking Nottingham’s
biggest murder investigation.
Jean was noted for her sense of fun
and her features on Notts dialect generated terrific interest. On the
day she retired, Nottingham City Transport rolled up with a 60th
birthday surprise – enabling her to achieve a lifelong ambition to
drive a double decker bus.
Driver Harold Blackhurst and instructor Derek Sanders showed her the ropes and then there was no stopping her.
Content from our partners
Former colleague Emrys Bryson said: “Jean had an impish sense of fun and a kindly eye for the absurdities of life.
“She
and I used to roam the city at lunchtime in search of the quaintness of
the Nottingham scene. Once we sheltered from rain in the doorway of the
old College of Art in Waverley Street during half-term. Suddenly it
opened and the caretaker ushered us into a room where stood a 20ft high
elephant made of papier-mâché by the students.
“Jean was entranced – as she always was with everything around her.”
Jean died in the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham on Thursday 13 January.
David Lowe, Nottingham Evening Post
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
