A WELL-KNOWN Bournemouth resident, Dorothy Bailey, has died at the age of 94.

London-born Dorothy Ellen Elizabeth Bailey met her first husband, a rubber plantation owner, when she was training to be a nurse. They were planning to emigrate to Malaysia after the Second World War but he died suddenly, leaving her to return to live with her mother.

Dorothy suffered severe claustrophobia when she was nursing during the war. Whenever the air raid sirens sounded she always volunteered to stay on the wards to care for the most critically ill patients who could not be moved to the shelters.

After the war, she developed bad asthma brought on by the London smog, and was advised by medics to move to Bournemouth where her health would benefit from the 'pine air'.

Moving to the town in the early 1950s, Dorothy worked in the government Food Office, responsible for postwar food rationing and while living at Orcheston Road in Charminster, she met Len Bailey, the post master at Bennett Road Post Office. The post office and stores had been under the Bailey family ownership since Len's grandfather James Bailey, and were well known businessmen in the area.

In 1961 she married Len at the Holdenhurst village church which was filled with pink roses, delicately arranged by the Cooper Dean sisters whose turn it was to do the flower rotas that week. Special dispensation had been sought from the Bishop of Winchester for the couple to marry not on a Saturday, as Len didn't want to miss any trade.

Dorothy and Len continued to run the Bennett Road Post Office for many years, until decimalisation was introduced in 1971, when Len decided it would be too complicated to manage the change over, and decided they should retire.

Up until Len's death in 1989, the couple enjoyed travelling around the world on cruises.

Her son and daughter, David and Jane Bailey, both worked as managers at Hotel Miramar on the East Cliff, where many regular patrons and guests got to know Dorothy very well.

"She was known as the 'napkin queen' as she would often be found sitting in the restaurant folding napkins, and when a large function was planned at the hotel, she would take 'homework' and sit carefully folding whilst listening to the radio or watching the TV," said her son David.

Despite becoming wheelchair bound in later life, Dorothy still had a lust for life and travel, and just weeks before she passed away enjoyed a holiday in Spain with David, Jane and family friends.

At this year's Bournemouth Air Festival Royal Marines carried her chair across the sand for a drinks reception with Commodore Jamie Miller.

"To the end Dorothy retained a sense of cheeky wit, often seen with a glint in her eye and a tipple in hand," said David.

Dorothy died at home on October 14. Her funeral will be held on October 30 at 12.30pm at St Andrew's Church, Florence Road, Boscombe, followed by a private family burial.