A WOMAN with more than one claim to fame has died six months after turning 100.

As well as being able to say she once lived in Sir Edward Elgar's childhood home, Doris Jones - who died at Shrubbery Avenue nursing home in Worcester on Sunday, June 24 - was only saved from travelling on the ill-fated Titanic because her little brother had chicken pox.

"I've lost the best friend that I ever had," said Mrs Jones' daughter Margaret Probert, aged 64.

"And so has everybody else who ever knew her.

"She was such a lovely lady and she will be remembered for her kindness and caring."

Mrs Jones' funeral takes place today, with a service at St Barnabas Church, Rainbow Hill, Worcester, at 10.15am and then at Worcester Crematorium at 11am.

Her coffin will be carried by a horse-drawn carriage.

"She saw so many changes," said Mrs Probert.

"All those new inventions and two world wars.

"She reached 100 years old and she deserves to have a lovely funeral - to go out in style."

Mrs Jones was born in Caerphilly, Wales and moved to Worcester after her father died in the First World War. In April 1912, the family decided to go to America in search of some work.

They were going to travel on the Titanic, but minutes before they boarded the doomed White Star liner, which sank after hitting an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a crewman stopped them.

He feared that her brother's chicken pox, a contagious virus, would spread through the ship.

Mrs Probert said her mum, who was five-years-old at the time, would often talk about the moment she stood on the dock and waved the ship off with a great sadness.

Mrs Jones met her husband Harold, who died in 1981, when she was working at the Abbey Hotel, Malvern.

After the Second World War the couple and their two children, Margaret and David, moved to 2 College Precincts - Elgar's childhood home.

Mr Jones, who worked at Carmichaels, made toys in his spare time and ran a novelty toy shop from the house.

He would display them in the front window and Mrs Jones would help to sell them.