Mayoress who met the great and the good...

double act . . . Margaret Jacobs and her husband Sid, outside Chadderton Town Hall, when they celebrated his 50 years in politics in 2006

The funeral of a former Mayoress of Oldham, Margaret Jacobs, was taking place in north Wales today.

Mrs Jacobs (80), widow of former councillor Sid Jacobs, who died in 2008, was a retired senior sister who worked at the Elizabeth Martland psychiatric unit at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

She died on Christmas Eve at her daughter Janet’s home in Wales.

Mrs Jacobs and her husband, who was also an Honorary Alderman, were Mayor and Mayoress in 1990-91.

Mrs Jacobs welcomed famous Labour politicians into their Foxdenton Lane home in Chadderton, including Tony Benn, and was well known in Labour circles, but never took an active political role.

Her friend and former Labour Chadderton councillor, Jim Greenwood, said: “Margaret was very, very well respected as a nurse, and she supported Sid as much as possible, especially when he was Mayor, but she never took centre stage.”

She leaves a sister Kathleen, and daughter Janet who lives in Macynlleth in Powys, where Mrs Jacobs lived after her husband died and her health began to fail.

Her family did not want local people to have to travel through bad weather to pay their respects at the funeral, and will arrange a memorial service for Mrs Jacobs at Sid’s Garden, in the grounds of Kingfisher School, off Foxdenton Lane, in the spring.