Last updated 05:33, Friday, 11 July 2008

Phyllis Grubb’s life was something like the ‘curate’s egg’ – good in parts and very good in its major parts. For personal family reasons, her early years were not happy and when she was in her 40s she underwent successful, but (in those days) invasive treatment for breast cancer.

Mine hosts: Phyllis and Sid Grubb behind the bar at Foxy’s which they ran from the late 1950s until they retired

However, all this and more was offset by her relationship with the man she loved. She said that her courting days were the happiest of her life and her marriage followed suit.

She and her husband, Sid, ran The Foxy’s bar and restaurant at Carlisle United Football Club’s Brunton Park ground for many years and were a well-known and popular couple among the thousands of fans.

She was, in fact, the custodian there.

As Phyllis Catherine Gibson she was born in Wetheral, had two brothers and a sister and went to the local school. Later, as a young woman, she lived in Scotby and worked in the old steam laundry on Warwick Road, Carlisle, close to the football club ground.

In June 1952 she married Sidney Grubb, who was a bicycle mechanic with the T P Bell company, in Abbey Street.

His father was in the army and Sid himself served with the forces for a while in Palestine and his application to be considered for a commission was backed by a written reference from the then Mayor of Carlisle.

The couple made their home in Delagoa Street and, in the late 1950s, took over the bar and restaurant Brunton Park and ran it very successfully until they retired.

A resolute and cheerful woman, she rarely had time off work, even when she was being treated for cancer.

In retirement she worshipped at St John’s Church, on London Road, Carlisle and was a regular attender at fellowship meetings there. She was also a regular bingo player at The Rex in Denton Holme and the Gala on Warwick Road and she was lucky, winning small amounts. Her husband died in 1994. Mrs Grubb, who was 84 when she died, was cremated in Carlisle. Walker’s Funeral Directors made the arrangements.