‘I think everyone will feel a personal sense of loss’: Esther Rantzen pays tribute to friend Dame Vera Lynn… as Lorraine Kelly and Holly Willoughby also honour the late wartime singer
Esther Rantzen has paid tribute to her friend Dame Vera Lynn as she dies aged 103.
The TV personality, 79, honoured the late wartime singer following the news of her death, while appearing on Thursday’s episode of This Morning via video link.
Hosts Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and Good Morning Britain’s Lorraine Kelly were also among the celebrities leading tributes to the Forces’ Sweetheart.
Sweet: Esther Rantzen has paid tribute to her friend Dame Vera Lynn as she dies aged 103
Esther sweetly said: ‘I think everyone will feel a personal sense of loss. I’m no spring chicken but she was a star for the whole of my life. She was constantly loyal to the things she believed in.
‘She was constantly loyal to the things she believe in – I remember seeing her very often at the Not Forgotten association.’
‘She associated herself with the people who defended our nation, she had this wonderful capacity her voice was as true as a bell.’
We’ll Meet Again: The TV personality, 79, honoured the late wartime singer following the news of her death, while appearing on Thursday’s episode of This Morning via video link
Discussing her talent as a singer, Esther said: ‘I remember hearing her sing unaccompanied at a charity event, she had a natural dignity which was never too grand. She associated with the people she knew cared about her. She was a very remarkable human being.’
During her address to the nation at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, the Queen referenced Vera’s most famous song We’ll Meet Again in her speech.
Esther said: ‘To have your most famous song quoted by the Queen was quite something, but there was something royal about Dame Vera because she was so loved, everyone who remembers the war remembers Vera’s contribution.’
Moving: Hosts Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield and Good Morning Britain’s Lorraine Kelly were also among the celebrities leading tributes to the Forces’ Sweetheart
Recalling her own memories of the iconic singer, Holly said she remembers catching a glimpse of Vera as a child where she grew up in east Sussex.
She said: ‘When I was a really little girl, we grew up near Ditchling, I remember being with mum and she said “that lady there is Vera Lynn”, I always think now that at least I got to catch a glimpse of this incredible woman.
Phil commented: ‘I met her a couple of times, she was so dignified, she never really put a foot wrong, at the time we needed her the most. From that time on, a calm serenity and dignity?’
Esther replied: ‘She had in a way, what the Queen has, she’s disciplined. I’m not sure she ever had a singing lesson, she used it to great affect with beautiful songs.’