A former music teacher and mother of Norfolk Olympian Kathy Read has died.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: Eileen Read, former music teacher in Gorleston and mother of NOrfolk Olympian Kathy Read, has died aged 90. Picture: Courtesy of Katharine Read.Eileen Read, former music teacher in Gorleston and mother of NOrfolk Olympian Kathy Read, has died aged 90. Picture: Courtesy of Katharine Read. (Image: Archant)

Eileen Buswell, born in 1930 in Holloway, London, and raised in Essex, was a talented piano and cello player, winning medals for these instruments and a scholarship to a prestigious music school in Harrogate, where she studied and trained to become a music teacher.

She moved to Norfolk and took up her first teaching post at Wells-next-the-Sea until she applied to the then Technical High School, now Ormiston Academy, in Gorleston.

It was there she met her husband Percy Read, deputy head of the school, and they married in 1960.

They had twins, Timothy and Christopher, and then a daughter Katharine.

Mrs Read taught music for many years at the Technical High School, working with classes, orchestras and choirs, with great passion and love of music, finishing her career again as a specialist music teacher for the deaf and partially sighted.

She was also directly involved in playing her cello in local orchestras.

When the school closed in the early 1980s, Mrs Read took early retirement and her focus changed to supporting and caring for her family.

She was an active person, cycling up to 15 miles a day even up to the age of 75.

Also a self taught swimmer, she used to swim a few miles a day, especially when the outdoor Floral Hall pool in Gorleston was open for the summer season.

Katharine, Timothy and Christopher were all national standard swimmers and spent many hours training and competing around the country of which their parents supported and attended.

Katharine competed in three Olympic Games and the highlight of this for her mother was travelling to watch her at her first Olympics in Los Angeles.

Mrs Read passed away on the June 4, 2020. She was 90-years-old.