A FORMER Tyldesley great-grandmother who once modelled nude for L. S. Lowry has died, aged 82.

May Austin posed for the world famous "match stick man" artist at Bolton College of Art in the 1960s.

Her niece, Jennifer Green, said: "She slipped into the role like a glove. She was given the unique opportunity to model for L. S. Lowry - he took classes in life drawing - and for John Bratby, the kitchen sink artist of the Sixties.

"Her amusing memories and anecdotes of them and of her associates and friends in the local art world remained with her until the end of her life."

Mrs Austin became a nude model in her late 1940s and carried on until she was 65.

But Mrs Austin started off in humble beginnings as a mill worker after leaving school aged 14.

The eldest daughter in a large family, she was born in Tyldesley in 1917 and was brought up in Bag Lane, Atherton.

During the Second World War, she was a bus conductor with Lancashire United Transport from Manchester to Liverpool. She married twice and had two sons from her first marriage.

She lived at Eden Lodge, Astley Bridge.

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