Tributes to 'hugely popular' sub-editor

Emma Farmer, aged 45, most recently worked on the sister publication Wolverhampton Magazine and was previously E&S features editor.

She died on July 10 having been taken seriously ill suddenly the week before while fishing with her partner, Stan Talbot, 63, to mark her birthday.

Mr Talbot, of Hospital Road, Hammerwich, said: "She opened her presents for her birthday and we went up to Chorley Springs where we went fishing.

"She had just caught the biggest carp either of us had ever seen. She'd sometimes say 'come and help me with this' if it was a big one but this time she said she wasn't feeling well.

"Then she collapsed and that was that."

Miss Farmer had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage – a type of stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain. She underwent emergency surgery but nothing more could be done to save her.

Mr Talbot, a builder, paid tribute to his partner of two years.

He said: "Emma loved life and she loved people. She would always try to help her colleagues. She loved them as well; they were her friends."

Miss Farmer had been a keen athlete in her youth, competing in hurdling.

She grew up in East Riding in Yorkshire, one of two daughters born to parents Colin and Pat.

Miss Farmer joined the Express & Star in 1998, having previously worked for the Press Association.

Mr Talbot added: "She loved the challenge of the job and she worked very hard at it. But she also loved her holidays, either going away for two weeks or a few days or just going fishing."

Express & Star editor Keith Harrison said: "Emma was a hugely popular and talented member of the team and will be sadly missed by everyone who knew her.

"Our thoughts are with her family and friends."

Columnist Peter Rhodes, who worked with Emma for more than a decade, said: "Emma was brilliant. She had an amazing eye for detail and was utterly dedicated to the job in hand.

"She was never a clock-watcher. If the job meant starting early or finishing hours after everyone else had gone home, Emma was there.

"She had a wonderfully dry North Country sense of humour and she will be terribly missed."

The funeral will be at Streetly Crematorium on Friday, July 25, at 11.15am followed by a wake at Redmore Inn in Hayfield Hill, Cannock Wood.