Henny King, one of Dundee’s most recognisable figures, died on Wednesday at a nursing home near Manchester at the age of 75.
Famed for her flamboyant dress sense and trademark hats, she moved south from her home outside Broughty Ferry to be closer to her sons John and Alex after she suffered a brain tumour two years ago.
An exuberant personality, Henny was a tireless supporter of community and charitable causes in her adopted Dundee home.
Among her best-known achievements were her organising the city’s octocentenary celebrations in 1991 and her directorship of the Angus Dundee Roots Festival in 2008.
She was a board member of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce and taught an industrial investigation course at Dundee College. Mrs King was also director of the Manchester Festival in 1973.
Latterly she led the project to build a statue of Norwegian second world war sea dog Bamse in Montrose, raising £50,000 for the sculpture. A book that related the dog’s heroic acts during the war was dedicated to her.
Mrs King’s life was eventful from the beginning.
She came from a long line of Jewish financiers and businessmen and was born in Austria. When she was little more than a baby she fled with her family to Canada to escape the Nazis. She sailed on a boat full of Jewish children from Lisbon across the Atlantic and didn’t see her parents for two years.
The family made a new home in Montreal, where she worked her way through school and college, winning a scholarship to study abroad. She chose Jerusalem and spent several seasons with the National Theatre of Israel, where she had to speak her parts in Hebrew.
She returned to Montreal, taking a teaching qualification in Hebrew, and then entered journalism.
She married pop singer Solomon King, had four children and the family resettled in Britain.
Mrs King found work in television, at the Royal Academy in London and ran her own arts development company. She was also head of communications at Greater Manchester Transport.
Other posts included head of public relations at Granada Television and at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. She was on the staff of the Manchester Evening News.
She arrived in Dundee in 1990 to run the festival of the city’s octocentenary. The event was launched in a live Hogmanay TV broadcast and led on to a year-long programme of activities.
She gradually immersed herself in the city’s culture and life, making a home at Duntrune with her second husband, the artist Edmund Caswell.
Mrs King is survived by three sons, a daughter and grandchildren.
Her cremation will take place at Bury on Monday but her family and friends are arranging a memorial service in Dundee later. Her ashes are to be scattered under a tree at Duntrune House planted in memory of her second husband Edmund.
By a sad coincidence Henny King died on the day of the funeral of another renowned Dundee figure, Jenny Wood Allen. The two women were friends.