Lee-Potter: Major role in Mail
One of the longest-serving columnists in the national press, Lynda Lee-Potter, has died after several months suffering from a brain tumour.
Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre said on Wednesday: “It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Lynda Lee-Potter died this morning after battling with a brain tumour.
“Linda’s genius was in putting into simple words what millions of ordinary peole were thinking.”
He said Lee-Potter had “an unshakable faith in the decency of the quiet, British majority”.
“Her professionalism was humbling and I shall never forget the last time she left the office complaining of a headache. She had worked through the previous night finishing a 3,000word interview with Gloria Hunniford. She didn’t leave to see the doctor until she had personally handed her copy to me.”
Of her interviewing style he said: “Her skill in persuading the famous, from Prime Ministers to soap stars, to disclose their innermost thoughts was just one of the things that made her a giant of journalism.”
“For the past few months every Wednesday the Mail carried at her request a note on her page saying she had been ill, but hoped to be coming back. She was a woman who really had it all, an extraordinary newspaper career in which she won every conceivable award, a loving husband and her three wonderful children.”
Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere said: “For 32 years Linda’s interviews and columns made an incalculable contribution to the Mail’s success. She was a remarkable person who represented the very best of journalism.”
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