My grandmother, Iris Pickett, who has died aged 94, was the matriarch of five generations at the council home in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, that she and her family had occupied for more than seven decades.
She was born in the Hull suburb of Sculcoates, the middle of three surviving children of Percy Dennehy, a chief engineer and trawlerman, and Hilda May (nee Bryan). They settled in Grimsby in the early 1930s. The Dennehys hailed from County Waterford, Ireland, but moved to England in the late 1800s when her grandfather was appointed portmaster of Liverpool docks.
After leaving Weelsby St school, Grimsby, at 14, Iris worked in shoe shops, including the local chain Blindells. During the second world war, Luftwaffe planes would drop unused bombs over Grimsby when returning from industrial targets along the Humber. The main warehouse was bombed and Iris, called in to help clear up the devastation, would later always say she could only find shoes for left feet.
She met Victor Pickett, an able seaman, in 1943, when he was best man at the wedding of her brother, Percy. They married in November 1945.
Initially sharing the home of Iris’s parents while looking for their own, they were offered a new two-bedroom semi-detached council house in Pershore Avenue, Grimsby, and moved in on the VE day anniversary, May 1950, with their four-year old son, Douglas. They had two more children there, and it remained Iris’s home for the rest of her life.
In the 1960s Iris earned money braiding nets for the Grimsby fishing industry. When her youngest child left school in 1969 she returned to shoe retailing, working for the local chain Shoe Fayre, becoming manager of one of its shops. She retired in 1987.
A television appearance on Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game with Douglas in the late 70s was one of several brushes with fame that thrilled Iris. When Douglas became a tour operator and promoter, arranging trips to concerts and sporting events around the country, Iris loved going to the shows and meeting stars such as Des O’Connor, Cliff Richard, Foster & Allen, Frankie Vaughan and Daniel O’Donnell.
Iris had a catchphrase for every situation. Her letters to me always ended with: “Don’t drink too much”. She answered the phone like the TV sitcom character Hyacinth Bucket (“Pickét residence, lady of the house speaking”). She laughed uncontrollably with very little encouragement.
Victor died in 1996 and Douglas died in 2017. She is survived by her children Steven and Diane, by nine grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandson.
