Cancer silences effervescent Kiwi singing star

New Zealand musician Beaver - best known for her role in Blerta and for performing the theme song to the 1980s Kiwi television show Gloss - died yesterday.

The Wellington-born singer, whose real name was Beverley Jean Morrison, passed away at Mercy Hospice in Ponsonby after a battle with a rare form of cancer. She was 59.

Daughter Fritha Stalker later paid tribute to her mother, whose career began in her early 20s when she met actor and drummer Bruno Lawrence.

Best known as Beaver or "Beav", a childhood nickname, she was a key member of Lawrence's music and theatre act Blerta (Bruno Lawrence Electric Roadshow Travelling Apparition) which travelled the country in the 1970s. Lawrence died in 1995.

Beaver had an acclaimed career, singing jazz, soul, blues and rock'n roll.

Highlights included a stint at the world-famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London and songs for New Zealand feature films Skin Deep and Came a Hot Friday and the television drama Gloss.

"Everyone who ever met her loved her," Ms Stalker said.

"She was just a very likeable person. Everyone was just so fond of her. She was so easy to like. She had that kind of child-like kind of quality that made everyone want to protect her and care for her."

Ms Stalker said her mother suffered from depression and agoraphobia and had fronted a campaign for awareness of mental illness.

"Despite all of those things it was a total joy for her to make music with the people who loved music the way she did.

"In our family music is a salve for us, a huge comfort, for all of us."

Ms Stalker said her mother's career could have gone further overseas but she didn't move away because she wanted her two daughters to grow up in New Zealand.

Beaver was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer, seven years ago. Her health began rapidly declining in March this year.

Ms Stalker said she wanted to thank staff at Auckland Hospice, where her mother spent several weeks of her final months, before passing away yesterday - on the last day of Hospice Awareness week.

A long-time friend, musician Hammond Gamble, who performed with Beaver, said friends and family met at a party for her about two weeks ago. Although she was unwell, she was in good spirits.

"She wasn't well but she had a great time. It was just fantastic to see her. She was still as effervescent as ever. The magic of Beaver, beyond her personality, was the fact that she was a wonderful singer. She had a fantastic voice, she just sounded good at whatever she sang. Whether she was singing an old jazz standard or whether she was singing some wailing rock song, she was very good at it.

"She was a lovely, lovely girl."

Beaver's body will be bequeathed to the University of Auckland's School of Medicine.

A memorial service will be held this Saturday at a venue yet to be confirmed.