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Dusty Springfield: England's Lady Soul

Lucy O'Brien, MOJO, May 1999

ON MARCH 2, 1999, Dusty Springfield died of cancer at her home in Henley-on-Thames. She was 59, just six weeks short of her 60th birthday. Too ill to go to Buckingham Palace for her investiture, Dusty had received her OBE at her bedside. Retaining her humour to the end, she remarked: "It's a nice medal. But couldn't they have got a better ribbon? It's a bit frayed!" Never one to let circumstances get in the way, returning from hospital one day in an ambulance she made the driver stop, got out, went shopping, and climbed back in. Such insouciance endeared Dusty to everyone.

Total word count of piece: 929

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