A journalist who met her husband in a weekly paper newsroom – and spent her honeymoon working there – has died at the age of 80.

Mary Ewen was a journalist at the now-defunct Sleaford Gazette for many years, later becoming a freelance journalist and court reporter for newspapers in Lincolnshire as well as the national press.

She married fellow journalist, the late Kenneth Ewen, in 1956 and together the couple brought out the Gazette, their dedication to the job meaning they continued working during their honeymoon.

Mary, who was living in a nursing home in Sleaford, had been ill for many years and has now died.

She started out in journalism at the Sleaford Standard after leaving school, before moving to work for the Gazette.

When that paper ceased publication in 1960, Mary became a freelance reporter which she remained doing until her retirement in the late 1980s.

She was thought to be the first woman to fly in a Meteor jet aircraft as a young journalist in 1952, dressed in a pilot’s uniform and wearing an oxygen mask, which circled her home town of Sleaford at speeds of up to 250mph.

A year later, she hired a light aircraft to cover a story about the East Coast floods which devastated houses and farmlands, taking photographs and writing the words from the cockpit.

Mary also used Sleaford’s wartime siren to her advantage when it alerted part-time firemen to emergencies, often arriving at fires on her moped before they did.

She also often met royalty as she was invited to all the VIP visits at nearby RAF Cranwell, including meeting the late King Hussain of Jordan.

Her stepson Max Ewen, a retired Leicester Mercury photographer, said: “Although she was very active when she was working, she has been ill for many years and the staff at Sleaford’s Oakdene Nursing Home made the last few years of her life so much more comfortable and happy.”

He said he remembered an incident which happened during Rag Week in the early 1960s in which Mary ended up being thrown in a river by four firefighters who were competing in a tug-of-war.

Mary was also an officer of the Lincoln branch of the National Union of Journalists, while her husband Ken went on to work as a sub-editor on the Lincolnshire Echo then as editor of the Sleaford Standard.

Her funeral takes place at Grantham Crematorium at 2pm on 9 November.