The bench for Yana's memory is perfectly located, but I can imagine she would have been pleased with lots of other spots too.
Yana
Yana was born Pamella Guard in 1932 in Romford, Essex, she died in 1989 in London.
She was a big star in the 1950s and 1960s as a singer and as a model. In 1956 she even got her own tv series with the BBC. She also appeared in lots of tv shows on ITV.
Through the 1960s and 1970s she was a regular in pantomimes, starring together with artists like Norman Wisdom and George Formby. According to her colleagues she was the sweetest person in show business, loved by everybody.
Yana with Tommy Cooper
In 1961 she was in the news when she offered her car to be used by Yuri Gagarin, the Russian Kosmonaut when he visited the United Kingdom, three months after his historic journey into space. Her car had a personalised number plate YG 1. (For Yana Guard).
She made it also to the big screen and starred in two films: "Zarak" and "The Cockleshell Heroes".
At the end of the 1970s her star had faded and she was forced to sell a lot of her belongings. Even her much loved car was sold. In the 1980s she could be seen working at the til of a Boots, the chemist shop, in London. She was found and featured once more in a nostalgia tv show called "Where are they now?" Her latest "show" was demonstrating a slimming machine in a Harrods department store.
Even if you try it is almost impossible to buy any records of the once famous Yana.
Yana did quite a lot of shows in towns around the Solent, she loved the area.
It really amazed me that the bench hardly gave anything away about the artist.
She must have been loved by many, how is it possible to become so forgotten?
This is one of her songs, from 1957: https://youtu.be/jDChEpiKPhI
I'm sure she would have loved the view from the bench dedicated to her.
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