DJ and celebrity PA passes away

Former T.V Presenter Joan Edwards visits second cousin John Halliwell during a family visit in 2003

A FORMER Oldham entertainer who was once John Travolta’s personal assistant has passed away, aged 87.

Joan Edwards was famous in the 1950s as Britain’s first television woman DJ and appeared on the TV programme “Housewives Call the Tune”.

Joan was brought up in Selkirk Avenue, in Chadderton, and attended Hulme Grammar School before she went on to appear in Oldham Coliseum productions.

She moved to Blackpool with her first husband before her career took off and she began to appear on television and in pantomime, even insuring her legs for £20,000.

Following the end of her marriage, Joan moved to the United States with her only child, daughter Kate, before becoming the personal assistant of John Travolta when he starred in “Grease”.

Joan, who later married American Duane Eldon White, worked for the film star for 16 years, travelling with him and coordinating his schedule before she became assistant to pianist Roger Williams until he died in 2011.

Joan was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late 1990s and it returned in metastatic form in 2012. In her final days, she lived in an assisted living centre near her daughter in California and she sadly passed away on Monday, April 18.