IT WAS a fitting tribute to a much-loved member of the gypsy community.

Eileen Cooper was buried in a Hampshire churchyard yesterday after a traditional procession through the town she used to call home.

Mrs Cooper disliked hearses so a flatbed truck was used to transport her coffin from Salisbury to Totton.

A large number of mourners gathered outside her former home in Water Lane, where the large white casket was transferred to a horse-drawn cart.

A large floral tribute was placed on top of the coffin just before it began its journey to St Mary the Virgin Church in nearby Eling.

The cart was followed by a convoy of lorries containing more flowers as it made its way to Eling for the funeral.

St Mary’s, which includes a 13th century chancel and a Tudor tower built in the late 16th or early 17th century, is one of Hampshire’s most historic churches.

Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver, presided at a wedding there.

It contains a memorial to five men from Lyndhurst, Totton and Redbridge who died when the Titanic sank during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912.

Mrs Cooper, a widow who was in her late sixties, had five sons and a daughter.