In Loving Memory of Florence Doreen Mann

Florence Doreen Mann, who was always known by her second Christian name and to radio listeners as Doreen Jenkins (her maiden name), died unexpectedly but peacefully on 30^th January while starting to recover from a serious infection, though she was also challenged by the long-term effects of a 25 year fight against Type 2 Diabetes which had seriously limited her mobility in recent years, plus heart attacks in 2016 & 2017. 

Doreen was the beloved wife of Terry, the much loved mother of David and Rachel and mother-in-law of Laura, as well as being the devoted grandmother of Theo and Charlotte. She will also be greatly missed by her brothers, Alan and Michael and half-brother Lawrence who were still getting to know her after first making contact in 2017. 

Her funeral involving family, friends and former colleagues at hospital radio station ‘Radio City’ and commercial local station ‘Swansea Sound’ was held on 18^th February at Swansea Crematorium in the form of a celebration of her life. The family would like to sincerely thank Reverend Steven Bunting, Priest in Charge of St Thomas, Swansea and Kilvey for conducting the service, Laura Mann who designed the Order of Service and Andrew Evason of St.James Funeral Home, Swansea who ensured the day went smoothly.

Doreen had specified that music by favourite artists Barry White and Queen should be played. Traditional hymns ‘The Lord’s My Shepherd’ and ‘Abide With Me’ were also included, as was a recorded tribute from former broadcasting colleague from Radio 210 in Reading in the 1980’s, Tony James, who has remained a close friend ever since and now works on the Isle of Man.    

The text which follows includes extracts from Rev Steve Bunting’s description of Doreen and her life in his Eulogy:                             

Doreen was a remarkable woman, somebody with a unique ability to listen and allow others to open their hearts to her, whether that was in person or over the airwaves.  

She was the kind of person that others could just connect with and they felt like they knew her and could trust her.  She listened because she was interested, not just to respond.  With a love of Clarice Cliff, charitable causes and her radio listeners she was incredibly popular with all who knew her.  

Life began in May 1948 when Doreen was born in Swansea and adopted as a baby by the Jenkins family, growing up and going through adult life as an only child. Although she’d accidentally learned she’d been adopted by finding papers in a drawer at around 8 years of age, she had no knowledge of her birth parents. It was only in Aug 2017 that she found she had other birth siblings, Alan, Michael and half-brother Lawrence when Alan wrote to her out of the blue.  

Doreen grew up in Stepney Street in Cwmbwla and went to school locally. In those days families often thought it wasn’t fit for girls to carry on in education beyond their mid-teens, so Doreen decided to get a Saturday job and do temporary secretarial work during the holidays so she could pay her way and continue her education. through sixth form. 

After that she obtained more senior secretarial work despite her age before joining a publishing company in the Swansea Valley which produced a free ‘shopper’ paper and the up-market glossy publication South Wales Magazine.  

This fitted well with her love of reading and interest in the wider world, which saw her ordering the Sunday Times from a local newsagent who didn’t normally stock it while only around 15. At South Wales Magazine she became both Sales Manager and Assistant Editor, a job she particularly loved because it put her in touch with a wide range of accomplished contributors. 

During this time (the early 1970’s) while visiting someone in Singleton hospital she was interviewed by chance for the hospital radio station Radio City, where she quickly became a volunteer broadcaster and fund raiser in her spare time. 

Having fallen in in love with Radio through Radio City, Doreen was successful in getting a professional radio job in 1974 as part of the launch presentation team at Swansea Sound where she became very popular.    

Not only did she find a job there she also met the man who she’d eventually fall in love and spend the rest of her life with, Terry who was her producer! Although they went in different work directions for a while after leaving Swansea Sound they eventually married in September 1981 at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Swansea and set up home together in Harrow which is where Doreen had ended up running the AA’s Roadwatch broadcasting unit while Terry worked in central London. 

In October 1982 David came along and in 1983 Terry began working at Radio 210 in Reading. The station needed some new life, so Doreen was hired because of her way with listeners and once again became very popular, this time with English listeners in the Thames Valley and North Hampshire. Later, in January 1986 Rachel came along and the family was complete. That is until the 21^st century Blessing of grandchildren Theo and Charlotte.

The family eventually moved back to Swansea in the mid 1990’s, living initially in Cockett before ending up in Uplands which was the family home for 19 years before a ‘down-size’ move recently, though still maintaining a sea view. Having helped win a radio licence in Guildford, Surrey Terry had been offered the opportunity to return to Swansea Sound to launch a new ‘sister’ FM station, 96.4fm The Wave. He decided to do this on the 21^st Birthday of Swansea Sound which also continued, allowing Doreen to make some fresh appearances. She also did some broadcasting voice- over work and special interviews.  

She is remembered in particular for two ground breaking radio interviews. The first, on Radio 210 in the mid 1980’s tackled the (then) very controversial subject of Aids head-on when Doreen decided to invite someone who had befriended a dying victim in his final months to describe the experience and tell listeners why he was trying to recruit more ‘Aids Buddies’. To allow time to tell the story Doreen temporarily stopped the music for several minutes on the commercial station and you could hear a pin drop as the heart-rending tale unfolded. Afterwards the station learned more potential ‘Aids Buddies‘ had come forward to volunteer after Doreen’s local radio interview than had resulted from a national Breakfast TV appearance earlier the same morning.

The second was her TDK award-winning interview with Gaynor Madgwick, a survivor of the Aberfan disaster who was speaking at length publicly for the first time after writing a book based on her childhood diary, despite the programme being broadcast on the 30^th Anniversary of the disaster on Swansea Sound and Valleys Radio. 

In it Gaynor described being an eight year old pupil suddenly left partially buried when her school was inundated by the sliding coal tip and she was one of very few class mates to eventually be rescued alive. She said she probably owed her life to an old radiator which came off the wrecked class room wall, came to rest just in front of her and stopped the slurry from suffocating her, as it had done to many around her. There was no ‘counselling’ of disaster survivors in 1966 as we know it today, they were just expected to be glad. But instead they felt guilty, especially as there were so few other children left in the village and every day they saw the faces of bereaved parents. So many didn’t talk about their experience at all, for decades, some even remaining silent when their own children came home saying they’d been learning about the disaster at school. This is why Gaynor’s book and the emerging testimony of other survivors was so significant and why Doreen was prepared to go the extra mile, quite literally, to get their story on the air.    

In typical Doreen fashion therefore, having read Gaynor’s story in the Daily Mail and despite still living in Reading, she organised the interview, asked a friend to look after the children, drove to Gaynor’s South Wales Valley’s home, took her to Swansea Sound, recorded the interview, dropped her back then returned to Reading to collect the children. All in one afternoon/evening!         

Doreen would tell you how it was, she would never skirt around the issue and people loved her for that, a spade was a spade.  She had enormous followings on radio and often received gifts.  A love spoon from a listener at Swansea Sound was one of her favourites and another was a black silk jacket with the Queen logo on it which accompanied the flowers on top of her coffin.  It was sent to her from a listener in Reading who’d suffered from agoraphobia and hadn’t left her home for years before listening to another of Doreen’s interviews with a fellow suffer who had conquered the problem, decided to do something about it herself and had been cured. 

In between ‘playing the hits’ in Swansea in the 1970’s and Radio 210 in the 1980’s Doreen ran the AA Roadwatch broadcasting unit based in Stanmore which routinely provided traffic news to London’s LBC radio, plus a host of the region’s local BBC and commercial stations. 

During severe weather she was also invited to contribute to Radio 4’s ‘Today’ Programme. In one such broadcast, having skidded to her studio through deep snow in the nick of time and still wearing her trademark woolly hat, Doreen was really chuffed to be described live on-air by presenter Brian Redhead as ‘positively encyclopaedic’. Indeed, it was her job at the AA which had brought her to Harrow, where she first encountered Clarice Cliff pottery.   

Over the last few years Doreen has been plagued by ill health, with failing eyesight and the need for a wheelchair resulting from the diabetes.  Always resourceful she adapted to doing things online from home, including some Ebay trading and becoming Editor of the official ‘Clarice Cliff Collector’s’ website which was all about the 1920’s & 30’s pottery she adored.  

Doreen will be remembered for her courage, passion, honesty, determination, empathy and compassion. She just simply loved people. When the children had friends around, she was the cool mum who would just chat with them for hours, listening to any problems and counselling them.  She was never old, she was always realistic, in the present and nothing was off topic.  

She loved the outdoors and her ashes are now scattered over favourite Gower bays. She also had beautiful memories of a honeymoon to Windermere in the Lake District, only slightly ruined by the fact that someone had put fish under the hood of the car as a prank. 

She loved a bargain, going to auctions and sales. She once told the children that if they moved at an auction it would mean they had made a bid and therefore they would sit deathly still for the whole time.  Six hours of stillness and silence!  What a mothering tip!  She also loved making a fuss on birthdays, it didn’t matter how old her children were, they would have cards, cakes and candles. The family returned the favour for her 70^th Birthday last May. 

Since August 2017 Doreen had loved meeting her brothers and their extended families. It was like they had never been apart and they are rightly devastated by the sudden loss of the ‘big sister’ they were just getting to know.

Terry Mann

25^th February 2019