Doreen Morton
Doreen Morton
5th March 1943 – 11th March 2025
Doreen grew up in Biddulph, Staffordshire with her parents and grandmother and sister, Susan, born eight years later. As a teenager, Doreen worked in a local café and was involved in the church’s youth group. She attended Grammar School in Newcastle under Lyme, so the hour-long journey on the bus gave her time to complete her homework! She went on to train as a nurse at the London Hospital in Whitechapel in the East end of London. She thrived and made many friends, some become lifelong friends.
A chance meeting at a friend’s wedding in Leicester saw Doreen chatting with Graham. This was in 1963. Two years later there were married and this was the year Doreen qualified as a state registered nurse. She moved to Leicester and raised her family, Louise and Jonathan. In 1978, the family moved into a detached house on Linden Drive. They lived there for 27 years until moving to Chesterfield in 2005 to be nearer Louise and her family.
During her years in Evington, Doreen never stayed still. She enjoyed lots of family holidays and got the travel bug. Then after the children were older, she returned to nursing at Leicester General Hospital and Pilgrim Homes. She took part in Music Hall productions at Mayflower Methodist Church and joined the Evington Village Hall committee and helped secure a lottery grant for its refurbishment. Having studied upholstery and soft furnishing (she had been a night school teacher in upholstery), Doreen made the new curtains for the hall and stage at Evington Village Hall as part of the project.
With her husband Graham, they were committee members of Evington Garden Club and she organised a visit by the Classic FM Gardeners’ quiz and a team from BBCs Gardeners Quiz Time.
As the secretary of the Village Hall Fete committee, Doreen was instrumental in organising the first Evington Village Fete in 2002. This Fete has continued every year since and has been regularised to the second Saturday in August on Evington Village Green.
It was around this time in 2002 that the Evington Echo (founded in 1981) changed to become computerised. Previously, volunteers had met at Wycliffe United Reformed Church for paste-up Saturday. Following Graham’s lead as the Evington Echo photographer, Doreen wrote up articles that explained Graham’s photographs, so documenting this period of Evington’s history from 2002 to 2005. Doreen and Graham left Evington in 2005, but not before securing the future of the Evington Echo, when Graham briefly took the role of Editor and with Doreen trained a new editor, Helen Pettman.
Doreen passed away peacefully just after her 82nd birthday. She lives behind her husband, Graham, 2 children and five grandchildren. She just missed the birth o her great grandchild, Owen.
Doreen is remembered for fun, laughter, always helping out and getting stuck in, making many friends and contributing generously to community projects.
Graham Morton
