Kiss goodbye as Beverley Sister dies

The Beverley Sisters have been described as “the forerunners of the Spice Girls and Little Mix and girl power” after singer Babs Beverley’s death at the age of 91.

Babs – one of the three members of the 1950s group of sisters known for hits including I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – had cancer and died at the end of last month. Her older sister Joy died in 2015, also at the age of 91, leaving Babs’s twin Teddie the only surviving member of the vocal harmony trio.

The group’s agent Johnny Mans said: “She had been at a care home in Brighton for a while and had cancer for fiveand-a-half years, but she still looked gorgeous.

“To me they were all wonderful girls, exceptional personalities, really bubbly and always smiling.”

Mr Mans said it was poignant Babs died at the same age as Joy.

Babs was born Babette in Bethnal Green in May 1927 with twin sister Teddie on Joy’s third birthday.

Columbia Records signed them in 1951, and their contract led to them becoming the highest paid female act of their time.