Tributes paid to town councillor, 61

John Howard

TRIBUTES have been paid to a town councillor and community stalwart who has died aged 61.

Beryl Myers-Hewitt, a Conservative Stowmarket councillor, was passionate about her hometown.

She and her late husband Keith, who lived at Hillside in the town, were one of a handful of husband and wife teams who served the authority through the years, including Anne and David Whybrow, Barry and Heather Salmon and Bette and the late Eric Jones.

Mrs Whybrow, town mayor and a Conservative county councillor, said: “She was working for the community even to the end.

“Only two weeks before she died she phoned me to help someone with a problem.

“She never stopped helping other people and regardless of her ill health she never stopped caring about the people within our community.”

Keith Scarff, a Liberal Democrat town councillor who served as his community's youngest mayor, said: “We are very sad to learn that a former colleague has died.

“Beryl's husband Keith was also on the town council, he died a couple of years ago. It's very unusual to see husband and wife teams in public life but we have had a few through the years.”

Duncan Macpherson, a Labour town councillor, added: “Whatever someone's political leanings one has to recognise the effort that she put in giving her time.

“For part of her time as a councillor Beryl was a widow and had a son with learning difficulties. But when she had other demands on her time she other responsibilities she still found the energy to serve her community.”

Mrs Myers-Hewitt served on the town council from 2003 to 2007 and her late husband Keith had been a leading Conservative locally, who had served on the county council and as a senior member of the Bury St Edmunds Constituency Association.

Mrs Myers-Hewitt died suddenly at Hillside in Stowmarket on May 20. An ambulance attended at the time and the emergency services said last night that there were no suspicious circumstances to her death, which was due to natural causes.