A long-serving Nairn councillor, with a passion for her community and who left a huge sporting legacy, has died at the age of 91.
Former district councillor Chrissie Ellen, nee MacKay, passed away peacefully on Hogmanay at her home in the town’s Simpson Street.
She was instrumental in the creation of Nairn’s public swimming pool and cricket pavilion on the links, and also helped establish amateur athletics facilities including a running and BMX track.
Born in Nairn, Mrs Ellen was the sixth born of nine children and was educated at Nairn Academy.
She was drafted into the Army at 19 to man an anti-aircraft gun and helped defend London during the Blitz.
Her prowess at netball, hockey and athletics won her an Army scholarship at Southampton University where she trained to become a PE teacher.
She played netball and hockey at her barracks and was also an accomplished table tennis player, while encouraging others to take an interest in exercise across the sporting spectrum.
Mrs Ellen was posted to Harrogate in Yorkshire where she trained Army recruits and worked as a PE teacher until the end of the war.
She married fellow Nairnite Robbie Ellen in 1947. They raised two sons, Robbie junior and Mark.
On Mr Ellen’s retirement in 1976 as a forester in Galloway, the couple returned home to their beloved Nairn.
Mrs Ellen successfully stood for council and set about bringing her passion for the town and her love for their community to good effect.
Former Nairn Provost and Highland Council convener Sandy Park remembers her fondly.
He said: “I knew Chrissie when I was in business in the High Street in Nairn, before my own time as a councillor. She was a good customer and we would get all the crack about the council.
“She was hugely impressive, a very likeable lady from a very likeable family.
“She was a hard worker for Nairn and very persuasive, never taking ‘no’ for an answer from council officials.”
Music also played a big part in Mrs Ellen’s busy life. Her mother Jeannie was a renowned singer of ballads.
And the couple’s surviving sons have had successful musical careers – Mark as a drummer with the ’60s band Vanity Fare and Rob as a promoter and radio presenter in the Highlands.
Mrs Ellen died 20 years to the day after her husband passed away.
She is also survived by an older brother, Aeneas MacKay who rose through the ranks to become Highland chief constable, and a younger sister, Mairi Corbett.
Her relatives have offered their gratitude to staff at Nairn Hospital and adult services for “doing way more than simply making Chrissie’s last year comfortable.”
The family is also keen that anyone touched by her life joins them in “a celebration of a life well lived.”
Her funeral is at noon today at the United Reformed Church in Nairn.