SHE was the soprano singer who used her skills to teach youngsters how to play piano.

Irene Ellis was also a ballroom dancer and a shorthand typist, who worked on Avril Pyman’s biographies of Russian poet Aleksandr Blok.

The 85-year-old died peacefully at home in Haydon Bridge, on Sunday, June 26.

Born in South Shields in 1931, Irene developed a lifelong affinity with the Allen Valleys as a child, when her parents would take her to a B&B at Staward.

During a trip to Allendale some years later, a 19-year-old Irene accepted a proposal of marriage from George Ellis outside the town’s Dale Hotel.

The couple began their married life in South Shields, where George was a clock and watch repairer.

Following a move to Newton Aycliffe in her late 20s, Irene began giving piano lessons, while bringing up the couple’s four children, Vivienne, Christina, Diana, and June.

The couple later lived in Wooler and North Tyneside, where Irene put her musical skills to good use, playing the organ at Wooler Chapel and piano at the Fishermen’s Mission in Cullercoats.

In 2013, Irene moved to Haydon Bridge with her daughter, Diana, and family, where the grandmother-of-nine was a regular at the village’s Methodist Church.

The family runs Mr George’s Museum of Time in Haltwhistle in honour of George, who died in 1990.

Irene’s funeral will take place on Monday at Haydon Bridge Methodist Church, at 1.45pm.