A FORMER dress maker for clothing designer Burberry, who still went to tea dances until two years ago, celebrated her 100 birthday with a party yesterday.
Ivy Tilbury, left, of Brooklands Nursing Home, moved to Sinclair Road, Banbury, with husband Fred – who died in the early 1980s – just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The couple had four children, Shirley Ross, 73, Pauline Jay, 71, Marilyn Cherry, 69, and Graham Tilbury, 67.
Graham said his mother always worked hard, adding: “She took on dress making from home, she was a fantastic dress maker.
“She worked for Burberry for four years and went on piece work straight away. In those days you had to earn a living as an apprentice, that’s what made her so good.”
Asked the secret of a long life, Mrs Tilbury, grandmother to 10, and great grandmother to eight, said: “You have just got to live an ordinary life and be good friends with everyone.”
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