A community correspondent who worked for a regional publisher for more than 60 years had died at the age of 87 – just two years after retiring.

Joyce Harmer, left, took birth, marriage and death announcements for Archant Norfolk’s Eastern Daily Press and was the longest-serving village correspondent for sister paper the North Norfolk News.

She filled countless news columns over the decades, reporting on the activities of clubs, churches and charities, along with events, weddings and funerals, mainly in North Walsham but also in surrounding parishes.

Joyce died in hospital earlier this month and was so organised that she had even prepared her own death notice, which appeared in Saturday’s Eastern Daily Press.

The notice said she had been reunited with her ‘loved and devoted’ husband Eric, who was a reporter for the EDP and North Norfolk News.

Joyce’s newspaper career began with her marriage to Eric in 1947 when she became his secretary, working from their bungalow in North Walsham and sometimes helping him with major stories.

This included accompanying him when he visited the scene of the Susan Long murder in 1970 and, when he was ill with pneumonia, taking a taxi to report on the devastation caused in Sea Palling by the floods in January 1953, which claimed lives in the village.

Over the years, Joyce raised thousands of pounds to buy electrocardiogram machines and nebulisers for North Walsham’s Paston Surgery to thank them for their care during her poor health, which including suffering several heart attacks.

She was also a life president of North Walsham’s Good Companions Club, which her husband had helped found.

Joyce’s funeral, which she meticulously planned herself, will be held at St Nicholas’ Church, North Walsham, on 1 April at 2pm, followed by cremation at St Faith’s. Donations will be made to the Priscilla Bacon Lodge Support Group.