Doris Stokes (1919-1987)
FORMER tea lady Doris Stokes filled the Sydney Opera House and the London Palladium during her career as a medium.
Famous for interpreting spirit voices on stage and writing six best-sellers, she was born Doris Sutton, in Union Street, with mother Jen, half sister Edna and father Sam.
While living in Union Street, Doris claimed to have had her first psychic experience when she saw a neighbour who had been burned in his home, walk out of his house beside his own charred remains.
She went on a TV tour of America, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, the UK and Canada with her psychic show, visited Ronnie Kray in Broadmoor putting him in contact with his dead mother and helped the family of a Yorkshire Ripper victim.
She also shared the stage with celebrities such as Henry Kelly and Danny la Rue but her television appearances attracted attention from critics who said her spirit messages were too vague and general.
While working in Australia she met Dick Emery who was to become a great and lasting friend.
In 1996 research by a university team denounced her as a trickster saying mediums use information from booking forms and exploit techniques to appear psychic.
In her first book, Voices In My Ear, she tells how psychic happenings became an everyday part of life and although her mother took her to doctors, convinced she was ill, her father was more sympathetic which lead her to believe he was psychic too.
During a childhood illness Doris’s told how her parents took her up cinder path flanked by allotments on the way to the railway – where she met the spirit of an African girl called Pansy and two boys who became her friends.
When she was 11, Doris’s family moved to Turnor Crescent .
Doris started Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School at this time where she stayed until her father died, finishing her education at Grantham Secondary Modern because her mother could no longer afford the KGGS uniform and books.
After school she went on to work in Grantham as a tea lady at Ruston and Hornsby.
When war broke out Doris became a member of the Women’s Air Force and was posted to Port Talbot in Wales where she would tell fortunes for fun but was frequently troubled when her premonitions came true.
She returned to Grantham when her mother fell ill and met paratrooper husband-to-be John in the Black Bull, Castlegate.
They married at Grantham Registry Office and had a son, John Michael, shortly before John was sent to Arnhem in Holland where he was lost, feared dead.
Doris went on to become a nurse before becoming a stage medium.
During her life, Doris was plagued by stress and illness, undergoing 13 operations for cancer.
There still is an active Spiritualist Church in Grantham which meets every Sunday at 6.30 PM in the Community Centre at Sandon Close. A great bunch of people come and much laughter and fun is had by all. After the service they also serve tea and coffee. New faces are always welcome and a warm welcome is guaranteed.