TRIBUTES have been paid following the death of a well-known musician and composer

A thanksgiving service 70-year-old Rose Reeve was held last week at North Road Methodist Church in Durham on Monday, March 21.

She was well known in local churches for music and plays she composed as well as her organ playing.

She composed four full-length musical plays including ‘Columba, Dove of Iona’ about the life of St Columba which was performed at numerous venues including Durham Cathedral, the Isle of Iona and the Edinburgh Festival.

Other musicals include Crusader, the story of Ellen Wilkinson and the Jarrow crusade, which was performed The Customs House in South Shields.

Mrs Reeve was originally from the Isle of Sheppey, off the northern coast of Kent, but moved to Durham as a student at the university in the 1960s.

Her husband of 23 years, Roger Reeve, 67, from Redhills Lane, Durham, said she had been suffering from myeloma.

He said: “She was well-known for her music, but also in art groups throughout the town for her painting and her pottery. Rose was loved by all who crossed her path. There was standing room only in the church.”