Carol Barnes, former 'News at Ten' presenter, dies after stroke at 63

Family, friends and former colleagues pay emotional tribute to 'warm, affectionate' newsreader

The former ITN newsreader Carol Barnes died yesterday, days after reportedly suffering a stroke.

Family members had been keeping a vigil by the 63-year-old's bedside after she was admitted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton earlier this month. Last night, Ms Barnes's son, James, paid an emotional tribute to his mother and described her as "a beautiful, kind and delicate person".

"She was a person loved by many and who I am desperately proud to call my mother... I am and we are all eternally indebted to her for what she has given us... she will forever be in my heart."

The News at Ten presenter was one of the most recognisable faces on television during the 1980s and 1990s, anchoring all ITN's major news programmes after joining the broadcaster in 1976. The one-time teacher, who also worked in public relations, moved into the industry in 1973 when she joined radio station LBC.

Ms Barnes remained with ITN until 1998, apart from taking a break from 1989 to 1991 to help launch the Channel 4 Daily breakfast programme. She returned in 2003 to work on the now-defunct ITN News Channel and was most recently on screen in January, presenting the ITV documentary Saving Ed Mitchell, about an ex-colleague's descent into alcoholism. Latterly she worked as a magazine columnist and co-ran a media-training company.

She endured personal tragedy in 2004 when her daughter, Clare, 24, died in a skydiving accident in Australia. Clare's father, the MP Denis MacShane, Ms Barnes's former partner, said: "Carol spread affection, warmth, political acuteness and humanity wherever she lived and worked... Her so sudden death robs a massive network of friends of one of the best."

Former colleagues also paid tribute. Dermot Murnaghan of Sky News said he would remember Ms Barnes with great affection and respect after she took him under her wing at ITN in the 1980s. "She couldn't have been kinder," he said.

Former ITN chief Stewart Purvis added his tribute last night: "It is a very sad day... All her friends are mourning Barnesey, as she used to be known, at ITN."