Mark’s memories of Lita

A Pinchbeck man has written a book about the 50s pop star who left him all her memorabilia after she died.

Lita Roza was the first British woman to have a number one single in the UK chart with her 1953 cover of (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?
She also had hits with Hey There and Jimmy Unknown and was an original members of her home city Liverpool’s Wall of Fame.
Lita was voted Britain’s top female single by readers of Melody Maker and New Musical Express four times in a row between 1951 and 1955.
She became friends with Mark Willerton , the co-owner of the Burtey Fen Collection of music memorabilia in Pinchbeck, after meeting him at one of her shows in Skegness in 1993.
Now Mark has written A Letter From Lita – A Memoir of Lita Roza which is being sold for £11.50 from Ebay with profits going to the singer’s favourite charity, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
“Lita was a huge name in the 1950s, but isn’t remembered today as much as her contemporaries like Alma Cogan and Ruby Murray,” said Mark.
“I wanted to keep Lita’s name in the public eye and pay tribute to her contribution to music.
“In her will, she left me all of her personal memorabilia relating to her career – which included hundreds of publicity photos, awards and framed certificates (for being Britain’s Top Female Singer).
“She had already given me a lot of her memorabilia when she visited me at my Pinchbeck home in 1996.
“The first I knew about being a beneficiary in her will was when I had a late night call from her solicitor, to tell me Lita had died that day and she had left me all of her memorabilia.
“Besides being a great singer, she had the looks of a film star, the epitome of glamour and sophistication.”
He also wrote a book about singer Kathy Kirby 12 years ago.