A journalist who became a police telephone operator after leaving the industry two years ago has died aged 64.

Tributes have been paid to Dee Adcock, former chief reporter and arts editor of the Salisbury Journal, who was known among colleagues for her “unique” telephone interviewing style”.

Dee, pictured, worked on the Journal in two spells, between which she took a career break for the birth of her two children.

She later had two spells working as a senior reporter for the Blackmore Vale Magazine, either side of a brief time in the Dorchester office of the Dorset Echo, before leaving the magazine in 2017.

Last year Dee retrained as a 101 operator with Dorset Police and, according to an obituary in the Journal, she was so popular among colleagues that the building’s flag was flown at half-mast upon news of her death.

Former Blackmore Vale editor Fanny Charles told the Echo: “She believed that you should talk to people, not just email or trawl around social media.

“We all loved her unique telephone interviewing style, particularly with people who didn’t want to talk to her – we used to say that she cuddled the subject into submission.

“She believed passionately in being accurate and fair, and often took on stories to support local people who were up against big organisations.”

Dee began her career as a trainee at the Andover Advertiser in 1974 before moving to the Journal as a senior reporter five years later.

She was promoted to chief reporter in 1982, but took her career break two years after that.

She returned to work for the Journal on a part-time basis for some years before being appointed the newspaper’s arts editor in the early 1990s, a period in which she helped the paper win a string of industry awards.

In 2003 her family moved to Dorset, after which she began working for Blackmore Vale and the Echo.

Dee died at the Joseph Weld hospice in Dorchester on 5 September after a short illness, and her funeral was held on Thursday.

She leaves a daughter Emma, son Jonathan and granddaughters Poppy and Lilah.