MOST would feel honoured to allow their hero to go first in a supermarket queue – but not Edith McGee, whose idol was Brian Clough.
When the no-nonsense football manager asked if he could nip in front as he had only one item, straight-talking Edith – who turns 100 today – immediately replied "no".
"I told him to get in the queue," the great-grandmother said. "Sure, I knew who he was. But I don't think he realised who I was."
The encounter happened 40 years ago at a Somerfield's store in Allestree, while Clough was manager of Derby County.
Edith said her admiration for Clough ran so deep she gave up her season-ticket when he left the club. However, she felt this was no reason to allow the football legend to push in.
"That's the idea of a queue," she said. "I thought Brian Clough was marvellous but I felt he should wait his turn."
It highlights how unique Edith is. At 100, she still lives independently at her home in Darley Abbey and has no help from carers. "I don't like help if I can do it myself," she said. "I don't like sitting still. It aggravates me. I can't do it. I didn't give up dancing until I was 93."
Perhaps even more unconventionally, Edith devotes many of her evenings to sitting in front of a plush 42-inch television screen, watching live football on Sky Sports.
"I like watching Liverpool the most," she said. However, "anything with 22 men and a ball" will suffice, according to her family.
Other hobbies include watching boxing and snooker. She also enjoys reading and watching soap operas – although not EastEnders as it is "too miserable".
"I've got a happy nature," Edith said. "I'm happy-go-lucky."
Edith was born in Derby and grew up in Chester Green, where her father owned a bike shop.
After leaving school, she became a barmaid and at the age of "20-ish" she joined Celanese.
It was at the Spondon factory that she met Jack McGee, whom she married in March 1940.
Edith recalled: "He asked me if I wanted to go the pictures in Chaddesden. That's how it started."
After getting married, the couple lived in a council house in Beaufort Street. They went on to have a son, Michael, who is now 73.
In 1964, they moved into a bungalow in Darley Abbey. Jack died in 1993 and Edith has remained in the bungalow ever since.
These days, she is visited by Michael, her two grandchildren, Darren, 47, and Sharon, 44, both from Spondon, and her great-granddaughter, Jessica, 16.
"I've got a good family," Edith said. "That, and a drop of brandy every so often, is why I've lived to 100."
Edith said she planned to celebrate her landmark birthday with a party at home, consisting of "tea and cake".
