‘I was always in awe of her’ – Legendary Sheffield journalist dies after long illness

Pat Roberts joined the Star from the Buxton Advertiser and Herald in 1954, spending 15 years at the Star before switching to the Morning Telegraph.

Over the course of three decades, Pat served as women’s editor and features writer, interviewing luminaries such as Margaret Thatcher, Vanessa Redgrave, Noel Coward and Morecambe and Wise.

She also launched the ‘Raise-a-Laser’ appeal, which raised an amazing £76,000 towards cervical cancer treatment in Sheffield, and later married former Star sports editor Les Nutbrown.

Pat retired from the Morning Telegraph in 1984 to run a fashion boutique, but continued to live in the Ecclesall area of Sheffield.

Keith Farnsworth, who now runs the Morning Telegraph Facebook group for former staff members, revealed last week that Pat had sadly died earlier this month.

He said Pat was one of a number of former Woodhouse Grammar School students who gave ‘outstanding’ service to Sheffield Newspapers in the post-war era.

He said: “She was recognised as a perceptive writer whose talents ensured she covered a wide range of subjects and was never confined to the women’s pages.

“She also produced many general features, such as an interview with Eric Taylor shortly after the Sheffield Wednesday general manager had been involved in a life-changing car crash.

“She remembered the Telegraph years as some of the happiest of her career.”

Other reporters from that time remember her as a ‘major figure’ in the newsroom.

Jonathan Foster - who was a trainee reporter on The Star in the 1970s - said: “She was a rather elegant figure, a proto-feminist, and a very accomplished and versatile features writer.

“She was quite ballsy, had no airs and graces and liked a gossip as well.”

Another, Andrew Darling, said: “Very sad to read this. I didn't know her well, but she was a towering figure, I always felt, in the Telegraph newsroom.”

And Jane Futrell said: “Sorry to see. I was always a little in awe of her.”