Midland journalist Christine Barker has died after a battle against cancer, aged 74.
Ms Barker, former women's editor for The Birmingham Post, was born in Quarry Bank in Dudley.
After leaving Stourbridge Girls High School, she gained her first journalism job on the Dudley Herald. After working in Sheffield, she returned to the Midlands to work for the Birmingham Post and Mail in August 1968.
Ms Barker spent a period working on the Sunday Mercury before becoming women's editor for The Birmingham Post.
She interviewed well-known personalities including Michael Parkinson, former Conservative Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine and Hollywood legend, the late Charlton Heston.
After retiring in 1993, she worked freelance for the paper, contributing book and theatre reviews.
The Post's arts editor Terry Grimley said: "She was a great theatre enthusiast and had lots of recollections of Stratford during the 1950s and 1960s. She was a well-rounded, well-educated old school journalist with a wide range of interest and knowledge."
The funeral will take place at Stourbridge Crematorium on South Road this Friday at 10.20am.
