Pools winner Viv Nicholson's funeral to take place

A Yorkshire town will pay tribute to one of its much loved and famous daughters today as she is laid to rest.

The funeral takes place today of Viv Nicholson, 79, who won the pools in 1961 and national fame when she vowed to spend, spend, spend her fortune worth in today's times about £5million.

With coal miner husband Keith, vivacious Viv then just 25, was true to her word and the poverty-stricken couple blew the £152,000 fortune within five years on holidays, US cars, designer clothes and boozy parties.

Good times disappeared with the money and after Keith died aged just 27 when his blue Jaguar careered off the A1 in 1965, Viv went bankrupt after landed with a large tax bill.

Blonde Viv left the ranch bungalow complete with swimming pool and returned to a terraced house in her native Castleford. She married five times in total, never regretted spending her fortune and found peace when she became a Jehovah's Witness over 30 years ago.

Today, Viv will be taken on a final journey through her home town as the hearse weaves its way to Pontefract Crematorium. It will venture on the same streets she once drove her pink Cadillac through - even though she had not pass.

It will also stop at the Breadalbane Care Home in Castleford where Viv lived for the last years of her life after she developed dementia.

News of Viv's death earlier this month at Pinderfields Hospital Wakefield made national and international news. Even the prestigious New York Times ran a lengthy obituary in its paper and online of the iconic Yorkshire woman.

Viv's story inspired a BBC TV drama and a West End musical which is still playing in theatres today. She leaves three sons and a daughter.