‘Mum definitely fitted about seven lifetimes into one’
DAUGHTER’S TRIBUTE TO RIDING SCHOOL FOUNDER AND JAZZ SINGER...
THE daughter of an “extraordinary” jazz singer who set up a popular horse riding school on the Llŷn Peninsula has paid tribute to the woman she describes as a “larger than life” character.
Janine Pendlebury Lee, daughter of the late Marcia Pendlebury who passed away last month after a short battle with cancer has spoken about the life of her mother who dedicated herself to her horse riding school and her love of jazz music.
Over the years Marcia had written down momentous moments in her life and in the latter years had begun writing her memoirs in the hope of having it published, but she sadly passed away at the age of 79 before she had the chance to finish it.
Born on Valentine’s day in Hyde, Manchester in 1942, Marcia, as the youngest of three siblings, would often overhear her brothers listening to jazz music in their bedroom.
It wasn’t long until she began sneaking out of the house and into jazz bars around the area before she started singing herself as a teenager before becoming a dress designer.
While on the jazz scene in around 1960 she met and fell in love with Keith Pendlebury, a jazz pianist who was at the time also a professional footballer before an injury forced him to retire.
Soon after meeting the pair became inseparable and formed their own band - The Keith and Marcia Pendlebury duo - and they quickly became well-known on the Manchester jazz circuit.
Speaking of her mother’s youth while reading through her memoirs, Janine said her mother often fondly recalled the times that they played at The Cavern Club in Liverpool,
“My mum definitely fitted about seven lifetimes into one,” said Janine.
“It was while they were living in Manchester that she decided she wanted a horse.
“She didn’t come from a horsy background, I don’t think she had ever even sat on one, but they bought a shire horse, or ‘the one with the fluffy feet’, as my dad called it.
“Having married in 1968, in 1970 she gave birth to me and my twin sister, Justine, and we lived in Congleton.
“They had been holidaying in North Wales for years and when we were three years old they bought a ruined cottage in Llangian and we moved here, with the shire horse in tow!
“She had always wanted to write a book about her life and she made a good start, it’s such a shame she never got to finish it.
“She was totally extraordinary and so entertaining and funny.
“Always the life and soul of the
party, she had a great personality and people were just drawn to her.”
After living in Llangian for a few years, Keith and Marcia sold the cottage and bought a smallholding of 13 acres in Llaniestyn, which would eventually become the Pen Llŷn Riding School (now the Pen Llŷn Lusitano Stud and Riding Centre).
This was the total opposite to the jazz scene they were used to, but the musical duo carried on with their music and held a weekly jazz night at the Harbour Hotel in Abersoch.
They later went on to perform for the Queen and Prince Philip at a private party in the Lake District in the early 80s but by this point they had their hands full having moved to another smallholding in Botwnnog.
Janine said: “They later sold the house in Llaniestyn, but kept the land.
“The new place was very unusual and secluded, which my dad loved, and my mum had lived there ever since.
“We would ride the shire horse to the school bus, slide down his neck and then he would trot off home.
“The riding school came about on the old land in Llaniestyn after my sister and I were given ponies.
“Our friends wanted to come over to our house and ride so my mum would give them lessons, then their mums would want to try it too and it just went from there.
“They had around seven or eight horses by the time we were five or six.
“My mum was very natural with them, almost like she had a special gift, knowing how to read them, and developed something which she called ‘The Pen Llŷn way’ of teaching people how to ride.
“It wasn’t ever something they intended to start, it just happened by accident and none of us realised how big it was going to get.
“We have always been very proud of them, we had a great childhood.”
Tragedy struck the family in 2002 when Marcia and Keith were on holiday in Madeira for her 60th birthday.
While performing a set on February 15, Keith, who was 68, collapsed on stage and sadly passed away, with the family later finding out that he had a blood clot.
Janine Lee said: “It was very traumatic for my mum. It was very out of the blue and it took her a couple of years to come to terms with it.
“She had always performed with him, pretty much her entire jazz career was with him.
“Somehow she found a way through it and she did start singing again and has since recorded a few albums - I think it made her feel closer to him.
“They were both just larger than life characters, there was nothing ordinary about them
“People would just gravitate towards them because they were so kind and welcoming.”
Marcia’s friends have described her as a “force of nature” who had a “huge passion for life” and a “born entertainer with a fabulous sense of humour.”
In June 2021 Janine took her mother to the doctor after noticing that she had lost weight and she had been complaining of pain in her side.
Sadly four months later in October,
Marcia was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer of the liver.
Janine said: “Initially she said she didn’t want to have chemo because she wanted to go out gracefully, but then she changed her mind and said she wanted to fight it.
“She was always so positive and was convinced she’d beat it but the cancer was so advanced and aggressive.
“She had two rounds of chemo but she kept getting poorly and passed away at my house, where she had been living, on January 20.
“She was so fit and healthy right until the end, she was still riding horses and I took her on a road trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2017 - she never looked or acted her age.
“We would go to Portugal a couple of times a year and she loved holidaying in Thailand - she would sing wherever we were, she never lost the ability to hold a room.”
Janine added: “I consider myself so lucky because I got to see her every day. “She was always fantastic fun and still very much part of the business.
“She was my best friend as well as my wonderful mum.”