Human heroes
alongside Liz in Corrie, said: “Her and Bill’s performances lit up living rooms across the country for decades.”
Liz had three daughters with Don, Dawn, 52, Ann, 51, and 49-year-old Julie and a son Graham, 59, from a previous marriage to Walter Bradley. The heavy smoker, who started on the cigarettes at 14, was diagnosed with emphysema in 2004.
She asked to be written out of Corrie in 2007. In emotional scenes aired the following January, 12 million viewers tuned in as factor worker Vera died peacefully in her sleep.
Leeds-born Liz, awarded an MBE in 2000, returned to the soap two years after her screen death as an apparition to Jack when he passed away in the same chair as her.
The loyal couple danced one final time together as Vera arrived to take his spirit away.
Bill died in 2012 aged 71. In her tribute to a “lovely man and a true gentleman”, Liz said: “I know he’ll be waiting for me at the gates of heaven.” The actress had become an ambassador for the British Lung Foundation in 2009, and promoted their Breathe Easy Week campaign. Four years later, she suffered a heart attack and had a pacemaker fitted – as she revealed only a third of her lungs still worked.
In 2015, Liz came out of retirement to star in an episode of Emmerdale as Mrs Winterbottom.
She missed the wedding of her grandson Thomas Borso in June due to ill health. The 29-year-old married Alice Coughlin, 27, in Bassano del Grappa, Italy.
Liz had further surgery relating to her heart issues the same month. She said later: “The doctors have told me there is nothing more they can do. There are no new drugs I can take, so I just have to get on with things.”
She was last pictured at the London wedding of grandson Luke Ibbotson to Nicola Oxlade.
Liz was taken to hospital last month with breathing difficulties.
THE loss of both Liz Dawn and Tony Booth in one day will remind many of us what is missing from today’s TV formulas.
Dawn as Vera in Corrie and Tony as Mike in Till Death Us Do Part were comedy gold.
They drew their characters from everyday people with real warmth and love of humanity.