A “much loved” regional journalist who went on to have a career as a television presenter and author has died aged 69.

Tributes have been paid to Eileen McCabe, formerly of The Northern Echo, who passed away on Saturday after a three-year illness.

Born in Murton, County Durham, Eileen served under the editorship of Harold Evans at the Darlington-based Echo in the 1960s.

Eileen, pictured above left, then worked for Radio Durham and Radio Newcastle’s Sunderland office before making the switch to Tyne Tees Television, where she produced and hosted arts programmes and later became a news reporter and presenter.

In later life she also ran her own PR business and co-authored a book about Tony Blair called We Don’t Do God.

Her son Philip Clark told the Echo: “She was much loved by her family, who will miss her greatly and cherish her memory.

“I always loved her as mum, but since she died I’ve became aware of how deeply former colleagues respected her as a journalist.

“She was a canny operator who knew how to get a good story. She adored her work.”

He added: “My mother idolised Harold Evans (who left the Echo to edit the Sunday Times in 1967). He was pretty much a mentor to her.”

Eileen is survived by husband John, as well as by her two children Philip and Louise and their father Tony, and by grandchildren, Humphrey, Lovell and Darcy.

Friends and family will attend a private funeral service on Saturday before her ashes released on the cliff tops near her home in Whitburn, Sunderland.