Mystery of famous sixties Shropshire singer who disappeared from the limelight
Who in Broseley remembers the town’s big singing star of the 1950s and 1960s who took her name out of a phone directory?
Her stage name was Janie Marden, but her real name was Janet Instone, the only child of Mr and Mrs Edward Instone, and was born at New Road in Broseley.
But if you are a Broseley old ‘un and cannot remember the family, it’s probably unsurprising, because she was still not two years of age when they moved to Bristol, where young Janet, a mezzo-soprano, became a telephone operator.
She explained how she chose her stage name when she chatted to a Shropshire Star reporter in March 1965 when she came back to the county for a family wedding.
