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Joanne Creed, 82, prepares to go back on stage. Below, as she was in 1950
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Glamorous gran treads boards at age 82
A GRANDMOTHER who sang to troops during World War II is gearing up to perform at her first concert in more than a year after fighting off breast cancer.
Joanne Creed, 82, a stockings model in her 20s, had been booked in to sing at Lauderdale House in November last year after beating the cancer but was forced to postpone it after catching a throat virus.
But Mrs Creed, who says she was awarded the biggest scholarship the Guildhall School of Music have ever given, is back fighting fit and ready to sing a selection of operatic classics, including Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the stately building in Highgate.
She said: “My father sent me to work in a war factory because he didn’t want me to be called up. Somebody approached me and asked me if I would like to sing for the troops. It was wonderful – I’d never travelled.”
She says she has no idea where she sang because they were often forced to sing in darkness – due to the blackout – and were never told where they were going.
“The troops loved it. Young beautiful girls coming in and singing for them. And I had a good pair of legs!”
Mrs Creed, who has been married twice and lives in the recently refurbished Brunswick Centre in Holborn, became a singing teacher after the death of first husband at 32 and several miscarriages threw her singing career off course.
“I don’t think I’m meant to be in the limelight,” she joked, recalling how she was once booked in to work with contestants on ITV’s Stars in their Eyes but when she turned up – by limo – the studio was deserted. “Princess Margaret had died that morning, and so nobody was there,” she explained. On another occasion she had travelled to Malaysia to perform at a concert but a terrible accident forced the evening to be pulled.
She performs My Life is a Song on Sunday, starting at 8.00 pm. She said: “I’m not making an amazing comeback. It’s a celebration of my life – every song I’m going to sing has a story behind it.”
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