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Tributes paid to former Post journalist

Tributes have been paid to former Nottingham Evening Post journalist Nancy Walters, who has died aged 72.

For many years Nancy was a news reporter on the Post and its sister morning paper the Guardian Journal.

After moving to the features department in 1980, she won countless followers as the Post’s gardening editor.

As the organiser of the Post’s Gardeners’ Circle she wrote a daily column and also presided over several reader events and wrote the book Grow with Gardeners’ Circle.

Local growers even named flowers after her.

The Nancy Walters chrysanthemum was registered in 1985 and a breeder from Ollerton, Sid Hall, produced the bi-colour pink Oakwood Nancy Walters in 1989.

Maureen Paul, a contributor to Gardeners’ Circle who became a personal friend to Nancy, said: “Nancy’s articles gave a great deal of help to amateur gardeners.

“She was one of the best gardening correspondents, and she will always be remembered by her many friends on the gardening circuit.”

Born Nancy Bates, she worked for the Lynn News and Advertiser before moving to the Guardian Journal and Evening Post, where she spent 37 years.

At the Post she met her future husband Mike Walters, who was picture editor.

They married in 1961 and after maternity leave in 1963 Nancy wrote a column, called Woman at Home, for five years.

She volunteered for redundancy in 1992, a year before her scheduled retirement.

Nancy is survived by her husband and their daughter, Clare.

Clare said: “In the early 1970s she was the first woman in the office to wear trousers, which I believe shocked some people. I think she would have enjoyed that.”