City shop boss dies at 85

A shop owner from Wolverhampton who successfully petitioned to convert her Black Country general store into a post office has died. Anne Southall was aged 85.

Mrs Southall opened Ettingshall Park Post Office as a newsagents in 1959 with her husband Frederick. The great-grandmother campaigned for it to become a post office which it became shortly afterwards.

She also owned two other Wolverhampton newsagents.

Mrs Southall died on Wednesday after losing her battle against cancer.

Her daughter-in-law Jayne, who now runs the post office with husband Martin, said Mrs Southall "lived life to the full".

Mrs Southall opened her first store, FH & AE Southall, in Spring Road, Ettingshall Park in 1951.

Her second venture was Whitehouse Stores in Birmingham New Road, Bilston. The shop is now being run by Mrs Southall's grandson Paul as a SPAR.

Daughter-in-law Mrs Southall said: "She ran the shops all of her working life. She opened the first one at the age of 28.

"She even delivered newspapers herself on a bike with her three children on a side car. She petitioned for the Ettingshall store to become a post office which is did soon after."

When her husband died in around 1980 of cancer, Mrs Southall carried on running the stores before passing them down to her children. Mrs Southall said: "We enjoy running the shops. It's a sentimental business to us."

Mrs Southall enjoyed travelling and had been onboard concorde as well as the QE2. She also earned a doctorate in music.

Her funeral is at Holy Trinity Church in Farrington Road on November 12 at 12.30pm.