TRIBUTES have been paid at the funeral service for a community worker.

Relatives, friends and colleagues gathered at All Saints and Salutation Church, in Darlington, yesterday to pay their respects to Jennifer Boddy.

Mrs Boddy, who died from cancer last week, spent five decades working to improve education in Darlington.

As well as sitting on the governing bodies of a number of schools, Mrs Boddy was also involved in several campaigns, including one in the 1960s to make the schools in the town co-educational.

The vicar, Reverend John Dobson, said he had been sworn to secrecy about Mrs Boddy's age.

But he let slip that she had been born on the same day as the Queen and was looking forward to attending a garden party later this year at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday.

Mr Dobson said she was a very modest woman who did not seek any kind of recognition for her work.

He said: "Her family knew if they gave her the town clock, it wouldn't be big enough for the work that she did and what she was due."

There was laughter as Mr Dobson recounted when her husband, Arthur, once asked her if she would help him with his family history research.

Mr Dobson said: "She told him, 'you can dig up the dead if you wish, but I will look after the living'."

The poem All is Well, by Henry Scott Holland, was read by Mrs Boddy's son, Kevin, and the hymns All Things Bright and Beautiful and Jerusalem were sung.