Joan Turner

Joan Theresa Turner (24 November 1922 – 1 March 2009) was a British comedian and singer, born in Belfast and brought up in London. She appeared on stage and TV and had her own radio show, becoming the highest-earning female singer in Britain.

Early years and education Joan Theresa Turner was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 24 November 1922. Her father was Leonard Turner, who became a London bus driver and subsequently taxicab driver after serving with the British Army in Ireland.

At the age of 11, Turner won a talent competition at a cinema in Peckham, South London, doing impressions of Shirley Temple and Jessie Matthews.

She won a scholarship to the Sacred Heart convent in Victoria, London, but told her teachers of her intention to pursue a theatrical career, and left school. She topped the bill at the London Palladium and appeared in the 1963 Royal Variety Show, topping the bill ahead of The Beatles. She also topped bills in New York City and the Las Vegas Valley,

The London Evening News once said that she had "the voice of an angel and the wit of a devil".

Later life and death In 1990, she was a guest of honour at the celebrations of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. in the August 2001 Channel 4 documentary Celebrity: The Rise and Fall and it was reported elsewhere that she had spent five years "down-and-out" in L.A.

She died on 1 March 2009 at her home in Banstead, Surrey, of a heart attack.

On 16 December 2010, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme entitled Joan Turner: The Highs and Lows of the Wacky Warbler in which Lesley Garrett told the story of the operatic comedian, containing interviews with her friends, stage associates and family as well as excerpts from her musical and comedy routines.

Personal life Her first husband was (William Hugh) Christopher Page of Lincoln, the grandson of Thomas Edmund Maynard-Page. He had divorced his first wife, Nancy Page, in November 1945. He married Joan Turner the next year.

By 1953 they lived at Heath House, on Cross O'Cliff Hill in Bracebridge Heath. On 26 June 1953 they had a daughter, Anne Therese. Anne Therese was christened at St Hugh's Church, Lincoln on Sunday 19 July 1953. On 19 June 1955, they had another daughter, (Pauline) Joanna, at Bromhead Nursing Home.

In 1957 she had a nervous breakdown. By the early 1960s they lived at Aisthorpe Hall in Aisthorpe, north of Lincoln.

In June 1963 she married 37-year-old Leslie Edward Cocks, at St Marylebone register office, with whom she lived with at Sanderstead in the Surrey hills. They divorced on 7 November 1967. He would go on to produce New Faces.

Her daughter Anne Page lived at the Manor House in Waddington in 1970, attending the sixth form of Christ's Hospital Girls' High School, gaining English A-level in 1971. Both daughters also attended St Joseph's Convent RC school.