Tributes after death of former Pendle councillor

A WOMAN with a tremendous zest for life has sadly died after a long spell of hospital treatment.
The late Katheen Hodgson (S)The late Katheen Hodgson (S)
The late Katheen Hodgson (S)

Throughout her life, Mrs Kathleen Hodgson – known to everyone as “Kath” – fought time and time again against devastating bouts of illness, but always found the strength to recover.

Finally, on Good Friday, it was one fight too many and she sadly died just a few weeks short of her 82nd birthday.

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Mrs Hodgson was born in Colne, the daughter of a member of a well-known butcher family – Jack Harrison. She has lived in the Edge End area on the Brierfield/Nelson boundary for many years.

Her late husband, Kevin, founded Crown Automatics in Pendle, which installed “one-arm bands” and pool tables in pubs and leisure establishments. Their son Martin now runs it.

Mrs Hodgson’s funeral took place on Wednesday, with a service at St Paul’s Church in Nelson and cremation at Skipton.

Mrs Hodgson worked hard in the community and for 18 years was chairman of the Pendle branch of Leukaemia Research, starting at a highly emotive time around 1990 when lots of children were dying from the disease.

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Her friend Coun. Pauline McCormick, said: “She headed a very hardworking committee which succeeded in raising the huge sum of £120,000 – a fortune at that time – and that money put things in place that helps youngsters to live on today.”

Mrs Hodgson continued being involved in various fund-raising activities to the end of her life. As a Conservative Party supporter, she became a Pendle councillor for Cloverhill Ward in 1977, and was appointed a committee chairman.

Coun. McCormick said: “Mrs Hodgson also fought the use of Bent Head Playing Fields in Brierfield for the new Marsden Heights ‘super school’ which combined Edge End and Mansfield High Schools. She was a governor at Edge End for many years but felt the development of the playing fields was too much of a loss for the people of Brierfield and wanted the new school to be built on the Edge End site.”

And she said Mrs Hodgson had “a wonderful sense of humour”.

For many years, Mrs Hodgson’s companion has been former Oddie’s Bakery manager Mr Bill Stansfield who, along with her son Martin, has been devastated by her death. Martin said: “She was a wonderful mother and grandmother to my two daughters. Nothing I could say could come near to conveying the love she had for us and us for her.”