DORSET journalist Lynda Lee-Potter, who made her name with a weekly column for the Daily Mail, has died.

The writer, who lived in Stoborough near Wareham, had been suffering from a brain tumour.

Born Lynda Higginson, the daughter of a mining family in Lancashire, she was married to Dr Jeremy Lee-Potter, who worked at Poole Hospital before his retirement.

Lynda Lee-Potter, who was 69, gained nationwide fame as the "voice of Middle England" but in Purbeck she is remembered as caring and kind-hearted.

In recent years she was a frequent visitor to a beloved elderly aunt at Marley House Nursing Home in Winfrith Newburgh.

Nursing home proprietor Jan Weekes said: "We saw the caring side of her - she doted on her aunt and spent time with her. She was very caring and all the staff loved her."

Locals in Stoborough described the couple as very private away from the media spotlight.

Tony Hardman of the BIC spoke of her support for the Bournemouth theatres.

He said: "She was an ex-actress and she loved the theatre. I am really shocked, I only saw her three months ago and she seemed fine.

"She was a lovely, lovely lady - she always attended first nights if she could and she was charming."

Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre announced her death "with great sadness".

He said: "Lynda joined the Mail in 1967 and for the past 32 years her weekly column and countless interviews have made an incalculable contribution to the paper's success."

She had been ill for some time and wrote the last of her regular columns in May.

In July the Mail informed readers that she had experienced health problems but was due back after the summer break.

Her last contribution was an interview with TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, who spoke for the first time after the death of her daughter Caron Keating.

First published: Oct 21