ELAINE Winters, mother of trainer Mick Winters and mother-in-law of former jockey and trainer Adrian Maguire, died peacefully last Sunday at Bridhaven Nursing Home in Mallow. She was 84.

Survived by 12 children, she was a former finalist in the nationwide Housewife of the Year competition, which was televised in the 1970s and 80s. Her son Mick said: “She was ahead of her time, a smart businesswoman who once won a trip to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for selling washing machines.”

The Winters family was better known in greyhound racing circles before Mick became a racehorse trainer but he said it was his mother who bought him and his sister Sabrina their first pony, which was broken in for them by the late Connie Vaughan.

Another daughter, Carmel Winters, is an award-winning film-maker and playwright.

Her funeral Mass took place in Kanturk on Wednesday.