Sadness at death of collector Carol, 67

A collector from the Black Country known affectionately as "the bag lady" for her record-breaking hoards of goods, including more than 35,000 carrier bags, has died at the age of 67.

Carol Vaughan made it into the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest collection of soaps. She also amassed the huge collection of carrier bags, had more than 600 biscuit tins and 850 mugs piled up at her home.

Miss Vaughan, of Great Barr, recently appeared on ITV's Daybreak programme for its "collectorholics" feature, where she talked about her love for her collections.

She died at the Dunedin Road home where she lived alone in the early hours of Saturday morning. Tributes were today paid by friends and neighbours, who described her as someone who could "light up a room".

Miss Vaughan's neighbours Craig Butlin and his sons Adam and Daniel, said they were shocked at her death. Adam, aged 22, said: "You would just always see her out and about, in the street. She was always full of energy, a very bubbly character.

"She would regularly go to Walsall Market, and I think concerns were first raised about her wellbeing when she didn't attend last week. I have been neighbours with her all my life, and we were both surprised and touched that she has made me and my brother executers of her will."

Craig added: "She was a celebrity round here, people across the Black Country knew her, and loved her.

"She was always laughing and happy to see you, and would do anything if she could."

Friend Diane Rhodes, aged 72, of Whitehall Drive, Dudley, said she was very shocked and saddened by Miss Vaughan's death.

She said: "I knew her from Major's Fish Shop in Blackheath where I sometimes help out. She used to come at least three times a week. She must have loved it because she got two buses there and two buses back.

"She would sit in there and eat her meal and read the paper. She would chat to the staff and the customers."

Ms Rhodes added: "She would light up the place. She was always smiling, and you would hear her roar with laughter, and her laughter was infectious, when she laughed you laughed.

"She was always joking and had a wicked sense of humour. She was very excited about appearing on Daybreak, she told us all about it. At first she didn't think it would come off, but then they organised to pick her up and take her to the studio.

"After the programme aired she kept getting recognised, and she would tell us about how people recognised her in the street."

"It is so sad that someone so full of life, has left us."