A KELTY pensioner who once rubbed shoulders with the stars has died at the age of 94.

Nancy Letham recently passed away at the Lindsay House Nursing Home.

A theatre lover, she previously volunteered at the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds where she became used to bumping into names such including Ken Dodd and Jimmy Tarbuck.

Born in Lumphinnans, Nancy was brought up in Hill of Beath in the old Miner's Rows where her neighbours included footballer Jim Baxter.

She married husband Charles in July 1946 and went onto have eight children and then an array of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

Daughter Louise Brown said her mum did a variety of jobs during her lifetime.

"She did all the camouflage nets that helped keep the troops safe in World War two then after that she married by dad and they had a family and she did a bit of this and that.

"She stayed in Glencraig, right next to Glencraig pit, then she moved to Lochore then after that she moved on to Leeds. She then moved down to Peterborough then back to Leeds. At that time, all the family were up and she got into the theatre at the City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds.

"She was just a volunteer and she put her hand to anything that was needed to do. There were a lot of stars. Ken Dodd, Jimmy Tarbuck, Chas and Dave, there were lots of them. Lots of big names from the theatre.

"It didn't matter if you were a star, she got them told. They were back and forward to the theatre all the time."

Nancy returned to Scotland, to Kelty, 22 years ago and enjoyed a busy social life in the area, even returning down to England for pantomimes until around seven years ago when it became too much for her to manage.

"When she came back to Kelty, she had a social life which was great. She went to the pensioners' club, the social club, the bingo club. She really liked to be out and about," said Louise. "She loved every single minute of her life."

In December 2020, Nancy was inundated with thousands of Christmas cards after a request an appeal from grand-daughter Leo Sheppard went viral

Because lots of her friends from over the decades had passed away and her Christmas post had dwindled over the last few years, she decided to ask people to send Nancy Christmas cards to cheer her up.

Louise added: "She was overwhelmed with the cards. There were over 2000 and they came from all over including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan.

"She couldn't understand and asked why are they doing all doing this for me and we told her it is because you are nice."

A funeral service for Nancy will take place at Ballingry Cemetery on Monday at 11am.