Beauty queen, 58, loses cancer fight
Date published: 23 June 2009
A FORMER Oldham Carnival Queen has died in Florida aged 58 after an eight-month battle against cancer of the oesophagus.
Talented Hilary Keefer (nee Schofield) had a short modelling career after she was crowned in 1970 — also going on to win third place in the national Miss Industry competition representing local mail order firm Burlington’s.
Her first husband was former Oldham Chronicle reporter Bob Turner and she met her second husband, Geoff Moseley, while working as an air hostess.
The couple moved to America, where she worked as a estate agent, and they had a daughter, Philippa.
Hilary married successful businessman Philip Keefer in Hawaii in 1995 and they travelled extensively throughout the world.
The couple lived in Japan for five years where she started a language school and was a dealer in antique Asian furniture.
When they moved to Jacksonville, Florida, the graduate of Oldham School of Art became an accomplished interior designer and also owned a boutique store, Hilz Interiors.
Friend Linda Tupman, from Springhead, had known Hilary since the age of three and visited her in Florida two or three times a year.
She said: “Hilary was a beautiful person, a really loving person, and everybody shall miss her. She lived life to the full.”
Hilary is survived by her husband, her daughter and two stepchildren.
