1 Inspirational music teacher Agnes Hoey grew up in Springburn, where she showed an interest in music from an early age. Her father played violin in a local orchestra and took her along to concerts. At the age of 18, she auditioned successfully for the Covent Garden Opera Company. However, she was deemed too young and told to return a year later.

Glasgow Times: Agnes Hoey and Molly Weir, joint 1977 winners of the Glasgow Times Scotswoman of the Year.

2 Instead, she decided to stay in her home city of Glasgow and took over as conductor of the Co-operative Children’s Choir, which her mother Rachael helped to run. It became the Glasgow Youth Choir, went from strength to strength and eventually had to have separate junior and senior sections. At its peak it had 300 members.

Glasgow Times: Agnes with fellow former SWOTYs Annette Turner, left, and Catherine Campbell, right at the 2009 event.

3 Agnes studied at the RSAMD, getting her diploma in 1956, and trained as a teacher qualifying in 1966. Teaching became her life and many of her former students went on to sing professionally including some with Scottish Opera.

4 Agnes spent most of her teaching career at Stonelaw High in Rutherglen - she never did take up that place at Covent Garden in London which is very much Glasgow’s gain and the capital’s loss.

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5 She was named Glasgow Times Scotswoman of the Year in 1977 – one of the few joint awards in the event’s history, with actor Molly Weir – and in the same year received a Silver Jubilee Medal from the Queen. She was also awarded the MBE in 1986 and an honorary doctorate from Glasgow Caledonian University in 2006 for services to choral music. She sadly died in July 2010, aged 78.