THE funeral took place yesterday of veteran Co Armagh reporter Joy Rolston who has died aged 80 at Southern Area Hospice in Newry.
Covering news, security and political stories at a time when there were few female journalists, she was a teenager when she began her career as a junior reporter with the Portadown Times in 1954.
Born Joy Somerville into a family of grocers, before marrying John Rolston, she went on to work for the Armagh Guardian - which she edited - and Ulster Gazette, before embarking on a new career as a freelance.
She set up a small agency in Armagh with her good friend, Alice Phillips, who died in 2014.
Together they provided copy for The Irish News, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and several radio and TV networks.
Ms Rolston, who lived at Orangefield Drive, filed "daily coverage" for the News Letter from Armagh during the Troubles.
BBC journalist Seamus Kelters? said yesterday: "Joy Rolston personified local journalism at its best - accurate, trustworthy and fearless. She knew people and her patch inside out".
Also an enthusiastic supporter of the Arts, Ms Rolston sponsored a cup at Armagh Speech and Drama Festival.
She died on Saturday after an undisclosed illness.
Her funeral service took place in Cheevers Funeral Home on the Hamiltonsbawn Road in Armagh at 2pm yesterday with burial afterwards in the Presbyterian Cemetery.
