Centenarians pass away

Mary Beels

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TWO of the town’s oldest residents — both named Mary — have died.

Great-great-grandmother Mary Beels (101), who put her long life down to a weekly tot of whisky, died peacefully at Shawside Nursing Home.

Her family will say goodbye to her at a service and committal at Oldham Crematorium on Monday.

Celebrate

Mrs Beels, who had lived in Sycamore Avenue for 65 years, joined five generations of her family last year to celebrate her centenary.

She worked in a number of Oldham’s cotton mills until her late 40s.

She married her husband Bill in 1936 after they met five years earlier at the cinema when he asked if he could walk her home.

They stayed together until Mr Beels died in 1971. They had two children, William and Mary.

Meanwhile the funeral of bingo-loving grandmother Mary Lazenbury (100), of St George’s Square, Oldham, takes place at Oldham Crematorium next Wednesday. She leaves a son Jack, who said it was her sheer willpower that kept her going over the years.

Mrs Lazenbury, born and brought up in Oldham, worked in the cotton mills at one time and then at Ferranti in Hollinwood.

She married Jack, who worked at Dransfield Engineering in Oldham.