Shine on Debbie, star of the Star Inn.

At the heart of Newlyn's fishing community is its pubs. The Fishermen's Arms, the Red Lion, the Star, the Dolphin, the Swordfish and the Tolcarne. Most times couples have run them, Mike and Kath in the Fish, Bill and Pat in the Dolphin, Pete and Marcia in the Swordfish.  Most times but not always.

In the Star for the last 24 years, it was just diminutive Debbie. Taking on any pub is a challenge, taking on a pub when your 5' 5" in the heart of a big and busy fishing port with a clientele of fishermen serious about spending their hard-earned wages on landing day is another prospect altogether. Just to top that, she also brought sons, Jack and Ben into this world.

But taking on is what Debbie was supremely good at and did whenever the occasion arose. Whether it was raising money for the Harbour Lights, seeing the Raft Race happen every year, fighting good causes like animal welfare or just taking on fighting customers - she took on life and everything that came her way with a huge spirit - ask anyone in Le Doris Bar in Kerity, Brittany.

When you run a pub that is not just any old pub but one that has maritime history seeped in its floorboards and then make it your own and, literally, write your own history, that takes some doing. Like any pub, thousands of customers over the years have sat in the window seats downing a few beers dreaming of a better life - in 1854 a handful of fishermen turned one such ale-fuelled conversation into reality - a few months later, they set sail on what was to become the "Voyage of the Mystery" - the first trans-oceanic voyage made in a small sailing boat - Newlyn to Melbourne in Australia. One hundred and fifty-four years later, Debbie entertained Pete Goss and his crew in the Star the night before they set sail in the Spirit of Mystery to re-create that incredible voyage.

But for Debbie, running the Star was much more than just serving pints or refusing to. Not just the everyday birthday celebrations, wakes, music nights and skippers settling up back in the days of landing money in cash but so much more. Over the years it became a hub for those who see that the Raft Race and Harbour Lights transform the village year on year and host to many other meetings and get-togethers. 

However, not content to give everyone in the pub a good time, Debbie felt drawn to bring pub and village goings-on to a wider audience outside and hence, the blackboard. 

What started as a means of advertising special offers...

soon morphed into a running commentary on the life and times of the village - whether it happened inside or out, there wasn't much that escaped her attention, ably supported by a network of co-conspirators at times.

If you were lucky, you got a name check...

sometimes you wish you didn't...

but plenty got their cards marked in some way...

sometimes more than once...

some days were busier than others...

sometimes the comments were reciprocated...

for some of the regulars...

or she added a more personal thought...

sometimes additional comments were required...

or were just plain personal..

or some that might have featured on Sky's, "Britains Most Notorious Pubs"...

and when you run out of birthdays its time for the awful jokes

sometimes it was political...

or in the name of good causes...

or just offering sage words of advice...

or wise words for visitors, especially around Fish Festival day...

or something more local...

or even someone or something that irked her...

or needed thanks...

or otherwise...

or just things to make you smile on your way to the Coop......

or slightly tongue in cheek...

ale sales, all in a good case...

at last!...

just plain simple community support...

or more a case of, "if you know, you know"...

or sometimes, not often, asking for advice...

well that was Debbie some time ago now, way back in 2010...

one of the more memorable moments was when the smoking ban in pubs became a thing and as usual, Debbie stood up to the mark and provided her nicotine dependant customers with something to stand under whenever they felt the urge and the weather was inclement...

Like the book or not, Debbie's role as landlady of the Star was chronicled in print along with that of her near-neighbour, the Swordfish.  The book often reads like hundreds of overheard conversations of the kind that both pubs thrive on and make them what they are - a life force in the harbour. 

St Peter's Church in Newlyn was barely big enough to host all those that came to see her off from where, to the sounds of, "We're off to see the the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz", family and friends made their way back to the Star and did what Debbie would have wanted, laughed, cried, hugged, drank and sung in her memory. Though behind all the smiles and laughter, there were plenty of tears.

Nearest pub neighbour and long time landlord of the Swordfish, Pete Bell had these words for his arch, licensed victualler rival;

"Debs was one of the last of original landlady, a person that understood her customers. She will also be missed on the Newlyn Lights. She will have them all singing and dancing up there."

RIP Debbie.