WELL-LOVED Glasgow singer Wilma Watson has died.

Wilma, who sang at the Cabin restaurant, in Whiteinch, became a much-loved institution in the city.

She has died in hospital at the age of 64 of heart failure.

Wilma, of Partick, was the singing waitress and hostess at the tiny restaurant.

She became a TV star in the 1990s and was flown to Las Vegas to meet celebrities including Engelbert Humperdink.

The party was never over until Wilma started singing.

People came to the Cabin for the food, but they also came for Wilma, and she became a cult figure belting out old Doris Day songs.

Wilma, originally from Dumfries, was a one-off, a large lady with a larger-than-life personality.

In the mid 1990s, she featured in a BBC Scotland TV show, Hoots Las Vegas.

It was the highlight of her life. She was taken to Nevada to meet the stars, was serenaded by Tony Bennett, got chummy with Engelbert Humperdink and chatted to Debbie Reynolds.

"Bennett is a real superstar," she said at the time. "Such a gentleman, yet he is ordinary, such a lovely wee man."

She sang on US TV and radio and her name was put up in cascading lights outside her hotel - Wilma Watson, Welcome to Las Vegas.

The Cabin was founded by Denis Dwyer, originally a plumber from Cork, who still runs it, and former electronics expert Mo Abdulla, born in Cyprus of Egyptian parents, who now runs the successful Roastit Bubbley Jock's and Fanny Trollope's restaurants in Dumbarton Road.

Poor health forced Wilma to retire from the Cabin over a year ago but both men remained her close friends.

"I remember the first time we met," said Mo. "I took her back to the Cabin and we shared cold turnip and a lobster."

It was Mo who 'discovered' Wilma's voice. "She would sing in the street while you were walking beside her. She just had to hear a song once and she'd remember it.'' Wilma, a widow, is survived by her sons, Paul and Mark and two granddaughters, Murren and Iona.

Her funeral will be held at Maryhill Crematorium in Tresta Road at 10am on Friday.