This Is Cheshire

Warrington-born singing star Edna Savage dies at 62

From the Guardian Series, first published Thursday 18th Jan 2001.

EDNA SAVAGE, who has died at the age of 62, was one of a clutch of Warrington singers and entertainers who achieved massive success in the 1950s.

Soon after pop charts came into vogue the soft-voiced songbird was up there at the top and had the world at her feet.

The girl from Broadbent Avenue, Latchford, always told her friends at Richard Fairclough Secondary School she was going to be a star and after dates at the Bell Hall, the Liberal Club, the Parr Hall, the Baths Hall and the Ritz Cinema she was catapulted to fame.

Her trademark was a choker - a piece of velvet ribbon around her neck with a brooch.

Among her mentors was Eric Pepperall, the veteran Warrington bandleader, who set her on course for recording success. In one of her early television appearances she sang alongside Glen Mason, another rising talent.

Then came a disastrous marriage to another pop star, Terry Dene. Within a few weeks, Terry refused the compulsory call-up to join the Army ­ at a time when Elvis Presley was enlisting ­ and then came divorce.

Subsequently, Edna married three more times, and with one husband she bore twins.

Terry later became a born-again Christian and is understood to be still preaching in the Bristol area.

Barbara Law, who went to the same school as Edna and also achieved huge success as a singer, was upset to hear confirmation of the news this week at her home in Tenerife.

"Edna made some lovely records. One of them, Candlelight still sounds as fabulous today as when she made it. At school she was full of fun, always playing practical jokes ­ and over the years she never lost her sense of humour despite all her troubles, setbacks and illness.

"Eric, along with comedian Peter Robinson and myself were all supportive of Edna but when you get so low it's very difficult to pick yourself up.

"She was always so feminine. She could flutter her eyelids and any man would melt. She was a star ­ and if things had been different she still could have been."

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