A LONG-serving employee of The Northern Echo, so popular with colleagues that they produced a commemorative front page to mark his retirement, has died at the age of 89.

Jim Booth joined The Northern Echo at its Durham office after serving a printing apprenticeship in London and working at the Cambridge University Press.

After a brief spell with another company, he returned to The Echo at its head office in Darlington, in 1966, where he worked until his retirement in 1982.

As a compositor, Mr Booth, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, worked night shifts for almost 20 years.

His two daughters, Tricia Brunt and Christine Kirkwood, recall stories of him being stopped by the police as he drove home at 3am after work.

Mrs Kirkwood said: "He always carried an early copy of the paper to prove where he had been. I think they got so used to it, they stopped him just for a free paper."

While he worked for The Echo, Mr Booth was Father of the Chapel with its branch of the National Graphical Association.

Mr Booth was born in Aber-deen in 1917 where both his parents worked at a paper mill until the family moved to Durban, in South Africa, where he was raised.

On return to the UK, he volunteered to join the Army and in 1939 was posted with the Royal Artillery and later the Gordon Highlanders, serving in Dunkirk and North Africa, until 1946.

While he was in the Army, he met and married his wife, Elsie, to whom he was married for 58 years, until her death in 1999.

Mrs Brunt said her father remained active and optimistic until he passed away, on January 25.

Mr Booth's funeral will be held at Darlington Crematorium at 10.15am today and the family has asked that donations be made in lieu of flowers to the Royal Artillery Charitable Trust.