Death of former Mayor

THE death has occurred of former Mayor of Warrington Ivy Edwards.
She died in Warrington Hospital, aged 85, surrounded by members of her family.
Ivy Edwards made history by being the first person to have been Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Mayoress and Deputy Mayoress.
She and her husband, the late Harold Edwards, were the first husband-and-wife team to become Warrington’s first citizens. She was awarded the MBE for services to the community.
Ivy was born in Middlesex and moved to Warrington in 1960 when she married.
She became involved in community affairs initially through the Co-op education movement and was elected as a Labour member of the borough council for Howley Ward in 1970.
Hugely popular, with people from all political parties, Ivy and her husband were actually tiny people.
But as one friend once observed: “Good things come in small packages.”
Ivy was a traditionalist. She did not approve of the chairman of a meeting being referred to as “the chair.”
When she became Mayor she insisted on being known by the traditional title “Mr Mayor.”
She was only the fourth woman to be appointed Mayor of Warrington.
When she stepped down from the council she was elected an Honorary Freeman of the Borough and continued to attend council meetings as an observer for some years.
Although serious and well respected politicians, Ivy and her husband both had a great sense of humour.
In 1984, shortly before she became Mayor, a printing error on a council document suggested that Ivy was living with a Councillor H.G Howards.
She joked: “Honestly, I have never heard of the man. What will my husband say?”
Harold said: “Who is this man? She hasn’t told me anything about him.”
The couple had a good laugh about it – but received an apology from the offending council department.
Ivy joked: “We won’t be suing.”
The same year, she fell on an escalator in a Co-op store, falling backwards onto Harold who also fell and required hospital treatment.
Afterwards she said: “We can really laugh about it now. It must have been a funny sight. I could neither get up nor stop the stairs. I could not repeat what I shouted to get someone to stop the stairs.”