NEWSPAPER columnist Lynda Lee-Potter, who died last week of a brain tumour, ruffled the feathers of many in her home town of Leigh -- as well as the glamourazzi.

She was born Lynda Higginson in Leigh on May 2, 1935, where her father, Norman, was a painter and decorator based in Leigh Road.

In her teens, she moved to London to study drama -- telling friends that she lost her Lancashire accent on the train down.

Mrs Lee-Potter joined the Daily Mail on April 10, 1967, and wrote her first column in January, 1972.

She said in one of her columns: "When I went to drama school, I got on the train at Warrington station with a thick Lancashire accent and got off at London without it.

"This meant that I had to speak extremely slowly for a very long time."

She married Jeremy, a distinguished haematologist, in 1957. They lived in Dorset.

She had three grown-up children, daughters Charlie and Emma, and son Adam, who have all followed their mother into journalism.

Soon after their marriage, the couple went to live in Aden, in the Middle East, where Mr Lee-Potter served in the RAF.

She began writing a column for the Aden Chronicle and after their return to London, was hired as a feature writer for the Daily Mail.

She originally trained as an actress and had two television series of her own for BBC North-west, called Lynda Lee's People.

Her weekly column in the Daily Mail has, over the decades, made her the unrivalled First Lady of Fleet Street. She was considered among her peers to be one of the most outstanding interviewers in the media and she interviewed all the modern Prime Ministers, including Tony Blair.

Mrs Lee-Potter had been ill for some time and wrote the last of her regular columns in May.

In July, the Daily Mail informed readers that the journalist had experienced health problems but was due back after the summer break.

When her column stopped appearing in the summer, readers contacted the newspaper to ask when it was returning.

Her last contribution to the paper was an interview with TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, who spoke for the first time about the death of her daughter, Caron Keating.

Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre said her weekly column and interviews had "made an incalculable contribution to the paper's success".

He said: "Lynda's genius was in putting into simple words what millions of ordinary people were thinking -- articulating, without talking down to them, not only their dreams, but also their anger and frustration.

"An unashamed optimist, Lynda had an unshakeable faith in the decency of the quiet British majority."

Famous for her ferocious reputation, she showed a particular dislike of political correctness.

Former Downing Street spokesman Alastair Campbell once cited the columnist as the reason for Cherie Blair's full wardrobe, saying: "It is not as if she wants to splash out, but she knows that unless she looks good, Lynda Lee-Potter will slag her off for looking frumpy."

Her famous lines include describing model Jerry Hall as having "about as much sexual allure as a plastic doll".

She won Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2001, for writing described as "consistently outstanding" and what the judges said was an amazing ability to pick up on what a lot of people are thinking".

Certainly she left a lasting impression on freelance journalist Clive Cook, of Atherton.

He said: "Her father, Norman Higginson, was a perfectly ordinary bloke, a good painter and decorator who had a small shop about three doors down from the Our House pub.

"I was a member of Leigh College Players a drama group, which built its own theatre in Guest Street after the college course was shut.

"Lynda Higginson turned-up on Tuesday evening and was chosen for a walk-on part. Somebody said she had the voice and presence to go to drama school and she took that advice and we never saw her again.

"The next time I met her was years later when she opened Leigh Infirmary garden party. She recognised me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek.

"She had talent, no doubt. Her voice belonged to the upper crust, it came quite naturally. You wouldn't believe she was a Leigh, Lancashire lass."

Named Columnist of the Year in 1984, Feature Writer of the Year in 1987, Woman Writer of the Year in 1989 and Feature Writer of the Year in 1993, she was awarded the OBE in 1998.

But she upset many Leigh people when she described her birthplace as "a once solidly built, dignified town that planners have turned into an urban sprawl of ugliness and squalor".

Unimpressed by a return to her native North, she wrote: "They've demolished fine buildings and replaced them with revolting concrete. The town is like a bypass through wasteland to nowhere. A small town has been desecrated needlessly by people without wisdom or vision.

"Rootless young women bringing up babies on their own in ugly, vile environments are not likely to have focused, happy offspring."

She was an active worker for the NSPCC and helped other charities, especially those involving children.

Lynda Lee-Potter

Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail said: "Lynda's genius was in putting into simple words what millions of ordinary people were thinking - articulating, without talking down to them, not only their dreams but also their anger and frustration.

"Bold enough to speak her mind, brave enough to take on the powerful, her ultimate loyalty was to those millions without a platform of their own, people whom she loved and with whom she identified.

"An unashamed optimist, Lynda had an unshakeable faith in the decency of the quiet British majority.''

Editor-in-chief Paul Dacre said her weekly column and interviews had "made an incalculable contribution to the paper's success".

He said: "Lynda's genius was in putting into simple words what millions of ordinary people were thinking - articulating, without talking down to them, not only their dreams, but also their anger and frustration.

"An unashamed optimist, Lynda had an unshakeable faith in the decency of the quiet British majority."