Tributes flood in for Laura the Ladybird

TRIBUTES have been paid to a Lothians singer, who regularly starred on the Benny Hill and Des O'Connor television shows, following her death from cancer.

Isa McIntyre, better known by her stage name Laura Lee, was a regular for nearly 20 years on the hit shows as part of her band The Ladybirds. The trio also sang on the Morecambe and Wise Show, Top of the Pops, the Royal Variety Show and The Two Ronnies.

They recorded the theme tunes for Blankety Blank and the Benny Hill Show, among many others.

Ms McIntyre died just over a month after her 70th birthday at her home in Musselburgh last week. Her Ladybirds co-star and founder of the group, Maggie Stredder,

said: "She was incapable of singing out of tune.

"For somebody with so much talent she was incredibly shy. That could have had something to do with her Musselburgh background."

Ms McIntyre first sang as a youth with the Musselburgh and Fisherrow Junior Choir and the Eskdale Singers. After leaving St David's High School, Dalkeith, she worked in a pram factory at Abbeyhill.

She left for London to pursue her singing career at the age of 22, although she returned to her home town in the mid-1990s and lived close to her sisters, May McGhee and Bridgetta Keenan.