TRUE BLUE

'Mr Everton' wanted the best for club he adored

- CHRIS McKENNA

IT WAS in April 2013 when Bill Kenwright stood in front of the Kop at a Hillsborough memorial service and declared: "They took on the wrong city and they took on the wrong mums." 

As a West End producer and soap actor, Kenwright wasn't short of the odd line but this wasn't a throwaway few words fit for Coronation Street, this was real and from the heart.

Kenwright was 'Mr Everton' but he didn't only 'get' the blue half of Liverpool.

So when he spoke that day in tribute to the 97 victims of the disaster, with a pointed reference to the authorities who tried to blame one of the worst tragedies at a football stadium on the Liverpool fans, it garnered respect on both halves of the city.

A sign of the man he was. He was Liverpool born but blue through and through.

Kenwright died on Monday night at the age of 78 after a lifetime as an Everton fan, board member, owner and chairman.

But his ambition was never to become the club's owner.