[3] Ruby Florence Murray was born near the Donegall Road in south Belfast, the youngest child in a Protestant family.

[5] Entering a public speaking contest run by Eglinton Young Farmers Club, Londonderry in March 1947, she won a special prize for the youngest competitor under 18.

A performance at the Ballymena Variety Theatre in February 1948 received a wonderful reception[6] and she then toured in Northern Ireland as a child singer.

[9] Richard Afton offered her the position of resident singer on the BBC's Quite Contrary television show, to replace Joan Regan.

[13] The 1950s was a busy period for Murray, during which she had her own television show, starred at the London Palladium with Norman Wisdom, appeared in a Royal Command Performance (1955)[14] and toured the world.

[1] In a period of 52 weeks, starting on 3 December 1954 and lasting until the end of November 1955, Murray constantly had at least one single in the UK charts – this at a time when only a Top 20 was listed.

In 1957, while working in Blackpool, Murray met Bernie Burgess, a member of a successful television and recording vocal quartet, the Four Jones Boys.

The divorce was finalised in 1976 and Murray moved to Torquay to live with an old friend, Ray Lamar, a former stage dancer and theatre impresario, who was 18 years her senior.

[19] Although her days as a major star were long over, Murray continued performing until close to the end of her life, spending her last couple of years in Asprey's Nursing Home.