She was the Jane Torvill of her day, wowing audiences with her spectacular performances.
Anne Rogers, now celebrating her 80th birthday, was one of the leading British skaters to achieve international stardom in the postwar golden age of ice spectaculars.
Miss Rogers spent most of her life living in Sussex, first in Saltdean and then in a house which she and her exhusband, former skater Eddie Ward, built overlooking the Devil's Dyke.
She said: "I have never lost touch with Brighton. Eddie and I spent so many happy and successful years there.
"The Brighton audiences were wonderful to skate to. They made us local idols and always gave us a tremendous ovation. It's the place I always think of as my home town."
The petite 5ft 2in redhead was born Shirley Anne Quarmby on July 10, 1928. Last week she celebrated becoming an octogenarian surrounded by her family and friends at a party at her daughter's home in Windsor.
She trained at the Cone School and the Italia Conti stage school in London, where she studied with Dame Marie Rambert and the Russian ballerina, Madame Lydia Kyasht.
After an attack of scarlet fever, doctors recommended strenuous exercise and Miss Rogers chose ice skating.
In 1935, she made her debut as an amateur in an exhibition performance at the Queen's Ice Rink in London.
She said: "There were no performing links in my family.
"But as a child I was passionate about dancing, especially ballet."
She made her name as an actress, appearing in a 1942 production of Peter Pan, and she also had roles in King Lear, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night.
She also did stints in the West End, with a part in The Little Minister, and she appeared in the films The Night Has Eyes, Caesar and Cleopatra.
At the age of 15, in 1943, she was asked to appear at the Ice Drome in Blackpool. She returned for a further two summer seasons.
Two years later she was spotted by two American talent scouts and toured America, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.
She returned to Britain an international skating star and married skater Mr Ward in 1950. They were billed as Britain's leading romantic skating stars.
In 1952, they moved to Rodmell Avenue, in Saltdean, into a house opposite Michael Thornton, who grew to know the couple well.
He said: "They were an extremely glamorous and charming young couple and outstandingly brilliant skaters."
