Tributes to ventriloquist star of TV’s Tiswas
An internationally renowned ventriloquist from Shropshire who worked on some of TV's biggest shows has died suddenly, after a short illness, at the age of 65.
Wendy Holden-Fenwick, who lived in Shrewsbury for many years, was also a star of stage and 70s television shows such as Tiswas, with Chris Tarrant, and Lucky Numbers, with Noel Edmunds.
She was a regular at many children's parties in Shropshire from the 80s before moving away to Surrey and in research published in the American Journal of Arachnology, which provided evidence that the outdoor web spinning brown spider tastes with the chemoreceptors on its legs.
A friend, Ron Morgan, said: "In the UK, Wendy's career was varied. In addition to the ventriloquism it included working at Meole Brace School in the science department and retail management for Jaeger in Shrewsbury.
"Not least of her achievements was being a founder member of the Shropshire Shufflers in 1981, a fabulous running club still going today.
"Wendy went on to teach in Surrey whilst writing a book about the First World War and the first American woman to be awarded the Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honour in 1917.
"She will be sorely missed by her family and friends not least of which her husband, two sons in Sydney, Australia, and her brother and sisters in the United States."
