TRIBUTES have been paid to Dorcas Spencer Frazier, a lady of boundless energy and enterprise, who has died aged 94.

She was best known as the owner of the Kinmel Arms pub in St George.

An only child she was born in Manchester and was eventually sent to a boarding school in Dolgellau, where she developed a love of amateur drama, taking part in various school plays.

She qualified as a teacher and taught at Denbigh High school.

Dorcas met and married Bert Frazier and the couple were married in St Thomas Church, Rhyl on December 26 1949.

They started a fish and chip shop together in Rhyl and developed a reputation which attracted queues of holiday makers waiting to taste the best local fish and chips.

In the closed season they would travel to France and Italy and brought back ideas. One of these was to start a coffee bar and they the first coffee one on Rhyl sea front. This was called Roma and they bought probably one of the first Gaggia coffee machines in the north west

Most of her life was dedicated to improving cooking and eating the best of food. She became a leading member of the Hiraethog Wine and Food Society in North Wales, and one occasion organising and taking a party to Beaune in France.

Never a person to sit still she picked up another idea at the World Fair in America. This led to setting up a chain of Wimpey bars in Chester, Wrexham, Rochdale, and in three locations in Manchester.

She further developed her business portfolio by opening an Italian restaurant in Deansgate, Manchester called Nabucco which became home to some of the Manchester football stars of the time, including George Best.

All the businesses thrived and Dorcas continued her love of travel visiting much of Europe whenever she could always enjoying new food and places. Her husband Bert always recognised her boundless energy and joie de vivre, notable at a time while women were still expected to stay at home and look after their husbands. She rejected this way of life and ran the businesses with gusto and panache a true entrepreneur.

Dorcas found a new passion equestrianism. She was said to be unstoppable, jumping anything even things that moved.

In time she started a new venture in Bridge St Chester namely a high class shoe shop called Elle et Lui selling shoes from Spain and Italy.

The being a lady never a lady to resist a challenge she looked for a new opportunity and found it in the form of the Kinmel Arms public house where she bought the freehold.

The Kinmel Arms blossomed partly because she added a food menu bringing different style to the normal chicken and scampi in the basket, the staple pub food of the times.

She served behind the bar every evening gaining many compliments from the locals for elegance. She was fond of the peacocks which she kept in the garden to the rear of the pub.

Dorcas was said to be a one off, a character moulded into resilience by the the war years and possessed a positive attitude. She never complained and just got on with life and always looked on the bright side. She was never scared of a challenge and led where others feared to tread.