TRIBUTES have been paid to one of the founding members of the The Star newspaper, part of the Adver group, and a stalwart of the newsroom for more than 27 years, following her death last week.

Dee Tucker died in the early hours of January 19 at the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, at the age of 69.

Husband Dudley Tucker said: “She wanted to die at home but it just happened so quick, I’d been getting Macmillan nurses and everything ready at home.

“She’d had cancer about 14 years ago and over the last few years she kept breaking bones and eventually we found out it was bone cancer.

“She was having several blood transfusions but that’s when she started going downhill.”

Deirdre Alexandra Tucker was born on March 29, 1946, in Islington, the daughter of Frank and Vera Peachey and had an older brother, Christopher, and younger sister, Laurel.

As she grew up, she worked for construction company John Laing’s in-house magazine in London and had several pieces published in various publications, as well as brief spells working in TV and radio.

She moved to Swindon at the age of 24 with her former boyfriend and got a job as a tele-ad girl for Wiltshire Newspapers but was quickly promoted to manager of The Star, which received several national awards for its success over the years.

“It was one of the first newspapers to be launched which was free,” said Mr Tucker. “She put 120 per cent into the job and that’s what made it so successful.”

Mrs Tucker met her husband in 1977 through his business advertising in the paper and they later married at St Andrew’s Church in Chippenham on September 8, 1979, before moving to Norfolk in 2003.

“We had our wedding in 18th century costume because of Dee’s love for Wuthering Heights and when people heard about it on local radio there were hundreds of people there to see us,” said Mr Tucker.

“She liked writing and had several things published and she loved making things with her hands.

“I don’t know where she got her love of writing from, probably her mother, who was also artistic and modelled with Norman Hartnell fashion house.”

Mrs Tucker’s funeral will take place at the Great Yarmouth Crematorium on February 12.