YOU pointed out to us one of the personalities we had missed out of our 100 Best Things About East Lancashire supplement was Kathleen Ferrier.

So now, exactly 50 years after her death, in a special feature Jenny Scott looks at the singer's legacy...

THE stalls at Covent Garden rustled with expectation as a tall, statuesque woman strode out on to the stage.

Dressed in flowing Grecian draperies and steeped in a sterling, indomitable calmness, the whole theatre stilled as she opened wide her mouth.

The sound that emerged was beautiful in its penetrating warmth, touching the emotions of all who heard it.

The date was February 1953 and this was Kathleen Ferrier's last performance.

During act two some of the audience heard a dull crack, but thought little of it. The opera - Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice - ran unhindered to the final curtain. Only one or two observers noticed Ferrier sang the rest of the act leaning against a pillar, a slight wince having briefly crossed her face.

Later it emerged she had fractured her left thigh while on stage. By that time the cancer, which she had known about for two years, was spreading through her body. She died on October 8 that year, aged just 41.

Yet despite her short-lived career - lasting just over 10 years - Kathleen Ferrier's name is still revered by music lovers throughout the world.

Buy 'The Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier' on-line now...

Conductor and music historian Christopher Fifield, who has just published a collection of Ferrier's letters, believes her enduring popularity lies in the poignancy of her death, as well as the beauty of her lyrical, contralto voice.

"Her death was terribly tragic and it struck a human chord," he said. "When a singer dies, their voice dies with them, as opposed to a writer who leaves their written works. Thank God we have the recordings - some 300 in total.

"But her voice had a truly unique quality and she had a huge appeal. She was one of the first cross-over artists. She would appear at Covent Garden one night and on Housewives' Choice the next.

"She was such a natural person people took her to their hearts."

Ferrier was born at Higher Walton on April 22, 1912. Her parents moved to Blackburn the following year, where Ferrier received a basic education and took her first job, at the telephone exchange, in 1926.

By the age of 23 she was married to bank manager Bert Wilson and appeared settled into a fairly ordinary life in Silloth in Cumbria, where the couple moved in 1936.

Always an extremely talented pianist, Ferrier had gained a diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in 1931. But she seldom sang in public until 1937, when her husband bet her a shilling she would not enter the Carlisle Festival both as a singer and pianist.

She walked off with first prize in both classes.

From there, her success spread, first in the North, then across the whole country and eventually throughout the world.

In her early days she impressed musicians with her technical ability -- one teacher describes her as having a wonderful open throat, the size of a small crabapple -- and audiences, both with her talent and her ribald, Lancastrian humour.

During the Second World War she boosted morale by singing in factory canteens and WI halls, becoming known as the Vera Lynn of the classical music world. In 1942 she caught the attention of conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, who suggested she move to London as soon as possible. From here her professional career really took off.

Mr Fifield said: "She had this knack of meeting the right people. It was as if somehow, somebody knew time wasn't on her side."

At one of her first big London engagements the composer Benjamin Britten was sitting in the audience and he cast her in the title role of his production of The Rape of Lucretia.

Later she encountered the renowned conductors John Barbirolli and Bruno Walter and toured America and Europe.

Despite her worldwide fame, she never forgot her first home and she would travel back to the North of England to perform whenever she got the chance.

Mr Fifield said: "You'd pop down to your local concert hall and there she was. Probably more people saw her in the provinces than in London, because she was so often on tour. Even then, most people never saw her - they only heard her on the radio.

"But she had this amazing ability to communicate with the audience. Usually it's the sopranos who attract the most publicity. Contraltos have quite a limited repertoire.

"But somehow, whatever Kathleen Ferrier did, she had the public in the palm of her hand. They loved her."

Music fan captured a classic concert

IN the years since Kathleen Ferrier passed away her devoted fans have rallied round to piece together the fragments of her career and life.

Now, in the 50th anniversary of her death, two unexpected discoveries have been made that help bear her talents across the decades.

The first is a recording made by a young music fan, who happened to plug his reel-to-reel Ferrograph into the back of a wireless as Ferrier was singing Mahler's Song of the Earth.

Half a century later his handiwork has been hailed as a unique recording and has just been released on CD by APR Records (£11.50 inc. package and post).

The second discovery was made by 58-year-old conductor Christopher Fifield, who uncovered a cache of Ferrier's correspondence while he was researching a book.

These have now been printed in one volume - The Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier - by Boydell publishers and reveal Ferrier's endearing, down-to-earth humour in all its glory, including a description of herself, ill-at-ease in a melodramatic opera, "flapping her arms around like a windmill".

Buy 'The Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier' on-line now...

Ferrier has not been forgotten by her hometown either. Between September 27 and November 8 Blackburn Museum will stage an exhibition devoted to the singer, based on the collections of her sister, Winifred, who died in 1995.

"The best things are probably her letters and diaries from the '40s and '50s," said Rebecca Hill, the museum's documentation officer. "But we've also got photographs and a poster and programme from her final performance."

The museum's social history gallery also includes permanent exhibits of Ferrier's life, including her fur coat, a tiara, her CBE and her famed recording of Blow the Wind Southerly, which is activated as visitors draw near the display.

Meanwhile, the industrious Kathleen Ferrier Society has chosen the weekend from October 24 to 26 to celebrate her music.

A special recital from past recipients of the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary will be staged in the museum on the Friday, followed by an anniversary concert in Blackburn Cathedral on the Saturday.

The weekend also includes showings of BBC documentaries about Ferrier's life, including a BBC4 tribute due to be broadcast in October, and a tour of King George's Hall, where Ferrier performed.

"We have members coming from all over the world," said society treasurer Shirley Parker, from Preston Old Road, Blackburn. "We're all looking forward to it very much."

For more information about the weekend, which costs £85 excluding hotel accommodation, call (01254) 262293 or (01254) 202069.