BOLTON'S mayoress at the time of the town's worst disaster, has died, aged 97.

Lena Almond, formerly Rigby, died on Friday, December 29, at the Four Seasons Nursing Home, Fold Lane, Breightmet.

She became Mayoress of Bolton when her father, Robert Demaine, was made mayor of the borough from 1945 to 1946 and her mother, Beatrice, was unable to take on the role because of ill health.

During their year in office, Alderman Demaine and his daughter came under the national spotlight, as the town struggled to come to terms with the aftermath of the Burnden Park disaster in which 33 football fans were killed and more than 500 injured.

Barriers collapsed under the weight of the massive crowd for the FA Cup game between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City on March 9, 1946.

Family friend, June Corner, said: "She was always very civic minded and public spirited. The months following the disaster were a very busy time for Lena and her father as the town's leading citizens."

Mrs Almond was also a former president of Bolton Soroptimist Club. She helped launch a branch of the United Nations' Association in the town and for many years ran her own business - a millinery and dress shop at her home in Chorley Old Road, Bolton.

She married her first husband, Stanley Rigby, in 1935. Both keen golfers and were familiar faces at the Old Links Club. They had two daughters Sheila and Heather, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

She married Jack Almond ten years after her first husband's death in 1967. He died two years later.

Daughter Sheila Davis, who now lives in Berkshire, said: "Mother had been frail for the past ten years.

"As a small child I remember accompanying her to Bolton train station to welcome the POWs back home. I wasn't quite sure what was going on but I could sense the emotion.

"She was always very sociable and loved meeting people. As a trained milliner, she was very fond of her hats. She could make a hat out of anything which came in very handy during wartime rationing and her year in office."

A funeral service and committal will take place today in Overdale West Chapel at 3pm. The family have asked for flowers only at the funeral but donations, if desired, can be made to the British Heart Foundation.