Oldest Tweeter and Pete fan dies
Thursday 05 August 2010
The funeral of Britain’s oldest Tweeter took place yesterday in Bradford.
Mrs Ivy Bean died at 104, having amassed a humungous following on social networking site Twitter.
She had forged firm friendships with many famous faces through the site, not least of all with a certain Mr Andre.
The pair tweeted regularly after meeting in September 2009.
The BBC reports that he said he was "saddened to hear that Ivy has passed away" and offered his “condolences to her family.”
He added: "She was a lovely woman who had a brilliant sense of humour and we have stayed in touch since we met."
Following Ivy's death, Tweety-Petey posted on his Twitter page: "So sad to hear Ivy Bean has died. An inspiration to tweeters young & old & proof you don't stop learning after 65! Rest in peace Ivy."
A tribute by Ivy’s granddaughter Fiona said: “You were his Mysterious Girl.”
Mrs Bean’s other fans included Stephen Fry and Gordon Brown.
She was invited to the Prime Minister’s Downing Street home earlier this year, and cheerfully tweeted that he was "really very nice", and his home was "beautiful inside".
Mrs Bean, from Bradford, had joined Twitter in 2008, and soon racked up an army of more than 56,000 followers.
The tech-savvy lady’s twilight years were a far cry from her early days.
Born in 1905, she was seven years old before the first telephone networks came out.
In her later years, however, she had access to the internet via computers provided at her care home, Hillside Manor.
Manager of the home, Pat Wright, broke the sad news that Mrs Bean had passed away in her sleep – fittingly doing so via the social networking site.
In the weeks preceding her death, Mrs Wright had regularly updated the site with news of Mrs Bean since she was taken ill in June.
“Mrs Bean enjoyed the publicity that surrounded her”, she said.
"She loved every minute of it. The media was a big part of her life. She would not have expected to go quietly."
Renowned Twaddict Stephen Fry had written: "I hear the divine @IvyBean104 – the oldest twitterer – is not very well and needs our best wishes.”
He had thoughtfully asked his more than 1.5 million followers to wish her a speedy recovery.
Before she passed away, Mrs Bean regularly updated her followers with details of her daily life and her friends.
Her last tweet on 6 July read: "going to have my lunch now will be back later".
By Emily Gosling
This sad but sweet story really made us smile here at Closer. Our thoughts are with Mrs Bean’s family.