Former Aberdeen Evening Express journalist Ruby Turberville has died in hospital in Wirral, Cheshire, aged 80, after being in ill-health for some time.
She was one of north-east Scotland’s best-known journalists and an avid promoter of women’s issues.
As a former features writer with the Press and Journal and women’s editor with the Evening Expresss, she became a much-admired writer during the Sixties and Seventies – specialising in women’s issues long before it was fashionable to do so.
She was also something of a trail-blazer for women of her time – holding down a high-powered job while bringing up her three boys.
Former Evening Express editor Bob Smith said: “She was a first-class women’s editor. She was always go-ahead and forward thinking.
“She made the women’s page very popular with a huge weekly postbag and her sector of the newspaper had a very big following.
“She also did outside events which increased her popularity even more. She was very well-known in her native Aberdeen.
“Ruby was always very lively and full of enthusiasm. She did not just look at her work as a job but got involved and liked to meet her readers.”
She began her career as a part-time contributor to the weekly Bon Accord newspaper but had a burning ambition to become a journalist and eventually was hired by both the Press and Journal and Evening Express in a full-time position in the late-Fifties – finding her niche with the Evening Express during the Sixties.
She retired just over 20 years ago and carried on as a freelance writer and broadcaster before moving to Wirral 10 years ago where she edited her local church magazine until the end of last year.
She is survived by her husband Leslie and sons Eric, Philip and Michael.
Hamish Mackay
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