CIVIC leaders joined local authority staff and people from community groups at a thanksgiving service for a former council chairman on Tuesday.
Coun Belle Bousfield, 74, headed Wear Valley District Council in 1997 and was its housing committee chairman until her death last week.
Mourners overflowed into the schoolroom at Crook Methodist Church to hear her friend, council leader Olive Brown pay a moving tribute to her.
Born into a large family in Birtley, Mrs Bousfield moved to Helmington Row, with her late husband Alf 50 years ago, running a smallholding and later the village post office.
Mrs Brown said: "Belle was a wonderful and dedicated councillor. The council was her whole life."
Money collected at the service will go to the Mara cancer treatment unit at Bishop Auckland General Hospital for which Mrs Bousfield raised £10,000 in her husband's memory.
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