A KEEN amateur actress has died after a short illness aged 79.

Mary Crossley, nee Mitchell, of Almondbury, passed away on June 30 after being admitted to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with pneumonia.

Born on November 12, 1929 in Birkby she spent her childhood at Birkby School and gained access to Greenhead High School in her formative youth.

It was there that she excelled in various sports teams and academic subjects.

After qualifying in book-keeping and secretarial subjects she took up a post at Elland Textile Company as the office book-keeper.

Also a horse riding enthusiast, Mary had her own pony named Wendy kept in stables at her house.

As well as riding with friends she took part in eventing and horse shows.

An accomplished sportswoman, she was a member at both Oakfield Tennis and Huddersfield Lawn Tennis clubs and became captain of Birkby Ladies’ Hockey Club.

At about this time she was drawn to Huddersfield Thespians from which started a life-long interest.

Her first performance was in Noel Coward’s Private Lives, which was the forerunner of a continuous series of successes throughout her life.

Her most memorable production was in Quartet in which the cast mimed a Berlioz aria.

A career change saw her join Messrs EN Chilterns textile agents, becoming their PA.

About this time she began attending Huddersfield Technical College dances where she met her husband-to-be Peter Crossley.

They married at St Cuthbert’s Church, Birkby in March 1958.

After their first child Ruth was born in 1963 she gave up work to rear a family.

Her son, Guy was born in 1966 and shortly after the family began an interest in sailing and boating, enjoying holidays on Lake Windermere, where they moored their own boat. They would later obtain a mooring on the River Clyde in Scotland from where many sailing trips were launched.

As the stresses of her sporting days began to show Mary was forced to have knee replacement surgery and moved from her four-storey Almondbury home to a bungalow.

She and her husband joined the University of the Third Age, played Bridge and formed a luncheon club, which they ran for 13-years.

Sadly Mary succumbed to the ravages of time and became less active before being overtaken by pneumonia, from which she would never recover.

Mary leaves six grandchildren, Bryony 13, Erica 12, Isobel 15, Tom 5, Jack 3 and baby Sam.