Great great grandmother believed to be oldest person in Burnley and one of the oldest in Lancashire dies at the age of 106.

A grandmother of eight with 16 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren, Betty Wright lived in her own home until the age of 100 when she moved into Dove Court Care Home in Burnley. From being a child Betty, whose formal name was Eliza, had a passion for dancing and credited it for her long life.

Paying tribute to her mum, Betty’s daughter Brenda, said: “Mum always said that dancing kept her alive. She was still dancing regularly well into her 90s. Dancing was her life.”

A talented sequence and ballroom dancer, Betty hosted a number of dance classes with her long standing dance partner and companion Alan Whittaker, before his death 11 years ago. Born in the now demolished Zion Terrace in the Gannow Top area of Burnley, Betty was a loom winder in the town’s cotton mills.

She got married in 1938 but sadly her husband, Albert, died at the age of 50 in 1966. The couple, who also had a second daughter Linda and son Kenneth, were married for 28 years.

A regular competitor in the ‘glamorous gran’ competitions on holiday, several of which she won, family was everything to Betty.

Brenda added: “She was so proud of her family who she loved very much. I feel very lucky to have had my mum in my life for so long.”