My grandmother, Irene Blackburn, who has died aged 99, was known for her sense of fun and her ability to laugh at herself. She was often very funny – both on purpose and inadvertently, such as the time we went to see the musical about the life of Buddy Holly and she thought the real Buddy Holly was in it.
Irene was born in Leeds, the only child of Eva (nee Clayton), a maker of butchers’ aprons, and John Farrar, who worked for a leather company. She attended Cross Flatts school in Beeston. She recalled that she once beat the main playground bully by turning on him with the stick he used to beat other children.
Having left school at 14, Irene worked in various jobs, including as a machinist at the tailors Campbell, Stewart and McDonald, making clothes for retailers such as Marks and Spencer. During the second world war she worked as a telephonist at the Post Office in Leeds city centre.
At this time, Irene met and married Les Blackburn, who was a womenswear cutter at Campbell, Stewart and McDonald, and they set up home in Harehills.
Their first daughter, Olwyn, was born in 1945. My mother, Avril, was born in 1948, this time with the help of the new NHS.
In 1966 Olwyn emigrated to Australia and went on to have four children of her own. Irene enjoyed several trips to Canberra to meet her grandchildren, who christened her Supergran due to her small stature and formidable nature.
I will remember her travelling in the car, marvelling at the countryside, giving a running commentary on everything she saw. Even in the last years of her life, she continued to take a delight in the things around her.
Les died in 1993. In 1997 Irene formed a relationship with Syd Barstow, who ran a newsagent’s shop in Leeds; Syd died in 2010.
She is survived by Olwyn and Avril, her granddaughters, Mary-Ann, Sue Ellen, Cherie and me, and by six great-grandchildren.
