Colourful send-off for Stuart

LOUD ties were worn and bright jackets donned as friends and family paid a fond goodbye to am-dram stalwart Stuart Lister.

The Rotherham Rep chairman’s widow, Trish, wore a bright pink wrap as she led mourners at a packed Herringthorpe United Reformed Church on Tuesday.

Relatives picked out garish ties from Stuart’s own eclectic collection in response to Trish’s request that the occasion should be sad but not sombre.

Fellow Sitwell Rotary Club members and colleagues from the dozens of Rep performances Stuart starred in and helped to stage, were also among the hundreds paying their final respects to the dad of three, who was described as a “wonderful, warm, generous, loving and open human being” by Rep chairman Sarah Cleverley.

Stuart died from a heart problem while at his Rotary Club’s annual meeting at the Carlton Park Hotel on May 16, just hours after returning from a holiday in Italy.

The Carlton Park, with assistance from a donation by a Rotary member, has bought a defibrillator and the Rotary Club will help to provide training for staff in his memory.