Rochdale’s Gracie Fields is to be finally honoured with a statue in her home town.
A life size statue is to be erected on the Butts and there is to be Gracie Heritage trail combining eight new blue plaques as well as plans to refurbish an existing memorial, close to her birthplace in Molesworth Street.
http://youtu.be/76epZXpOO3U
Our Gracie was born over a chip shop in the town in 1895, made her first stage appearance at the age of seven and went onto be a the top box-office draw and the highest paid actress in Britain in the 1930’s. Her Northern, working-class girl character was a favourite during the inter-war years, a symbol of courage and hope, and a huge, sentimental favorite during Depression-riddled England.
However her popularity ended abruptly when she moved to the United States during the war years, never quite winning her public back even when she returned and would make her home on the Italian island of Capri.
She was created a Dame in early 1979, a few months before she died.