A FORMER Andover teacher and mayoress has died six months before her 100th birthday.

Glenys Porter née Williams died in her sleep on Saturday, April 9.

Born in Blaenllechau in south Wales on October 1 1916, Mrs Porter’s son, Hugh, said she was an accomplished pianist and a member of a classical music society for many years.

He said: “The piano was the love of her life.”

She received a First Class Honours for Music, Welsh and Latin at Aberystwyth University in the mid-1930s.

Mrs Porter then trained as a teacher, moved to Andover and taught at Andover Girls’ Secondary Modern School on London Road.

In 1948 she married Laurie Porter and a couple of years later the couple had their only child, Hugh.

Laurie Porter was both a mayor of Andover from 1962/63 and 1968/69, and a mayor of Test Valley in 1983/84.

Once Mrs Porter retired, she took up travelling once more and went to Russia with her husband.

During her visit, Mrs Porter suffered a retinal detachment in her right eye, but this did not deter her from continuing her travels to areas such as South East Asia and Australia.

Mrs Porter was keen to locate the many Welsh speakers around the world and continued to travel after her husband died in 1993.

At 80 years old she went with a Welsh-speaking group to Patagonia, Argentina, to visit Welsh colonies and even played piano in village halls.

Hugh said: “She was fiercely independent to the end.

“She loved Wales and to the end she was definitely thinking about Wales and about where she went to walk there as a child.”

Mr Porter also said that his mother visited Andover, Massachusetts and was given an umbrella by a store’s proprietor after talking to them about her home.

Mr Porter added: “Mother never wore trousers, never drove a car and didn’t drink.

“She did, however, like a pub lunch.”

One of her all-time favourite pubs was The Cricketers Arms in Tangley, as well as The Hatchet in Chute.

Mrs Porter moved from her bungalow on The Drove to Carter’s Meadow in Charlton nine years ago.

Mr Porter said: “She loved the drive leaving Chute.

“Going up on to the Causeway, then heading down to Hurstbourne and through the valley on to St Mary Bourne.

“Then past the watercress beds to Longstock to see the trees on the estate and to visit the nursery.”

A couple of years ago Mrs Porter moved to Norfolk to be nearer her family.

She is survived by her son and his children, Lucy, Sam, Ella, and seven great-grandchildren.

Were you taught by Glenys or do you have any memories of her? Email newsdesk@andoveradvertiser.co.uk and let us know