A FORMER amateur actress took centre stage this week when she celebrated her 100th birthday.
And among the tributes to mark Mrs Constance Hill's big day on Wednesday was a telegram from the Queen.
As well as treading the boards, Mrs Hill, a resident at Elmhurst Elderly Persons Home in Whalley Road, Whitefield, also enjoyed playing the piano.
But she did not mind sitting back with her family and letting local singer, Dave Scott, provide the entertainment on Wednesday.
And she celebrated in style with bouquets of flowers, three glasses of sherry and a birthday cake. Mrs Hill was born in Earl Street, Prestwich. She attended the former British School, in Bury Old Road, Prestwich, leaving at the age of 13 to work for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.
She continued to work in the railway's accounts department at Victoria Station, Manchester, until 1921 when she married Mr Samuel Johnson.
Thirty-four years after Mr Johnson's death in 1930, she married Mr Alf Hill, a Bury councillor, and remained with him until his death in 1984.
Mrs Hill, who has lived locally all her life, has a son and a daughter, four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
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