This, Mrs Farley believes, could earn her the title of being the Mercury’s most loyal reader.

Last week she brought out some of her favourite copies of the newspaper featuring articles about her days riding horses in East Maitland and about her time as being Maitland’s first female taxi driver.

“I celebrated my 95th birthday two weeks ago and before I met my friends to celebrate, I read the paper as I have done since I was a young girl,” Mrs Farley said.

“I have always enjoyed reading the news and all the features but I particularly like the letters page.”

She said it was an item about Maitland Mercury readers that prompted her to ­contact this newspaper and tell her story.

During World War II, Mrs Farley worked as a driver at the Burlington Munitions Factory in Rutherford.

She later married Lance Farley, who worked with cattle, and after 13 years when he was very ill she began driving her first taxi.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time, but Lance was very sick and there was no money coming in,” Ms Farley said.

So in 1954 she picked up her first passenger and then notched up 35 years as a taxi driver.

Apart from a few minor problems with drunk passengers who climbed into her cab, but didn’t know where they wanted to go, Mrs Farley said she never had any major problems.

“It’s a bit different to how things are today, even though we have several female cabbies now,” she said.

“I don’t think I would like to be out on the roads today where people are not as friendly as they once were.”

As for her time riding horses, Mrs Farley featured prominently in the Mercury.

“I had a wonderful time riding, but it wasn’t all good,” she said.

“Once I fell at a show in Newcastle and spent 10 hours unconscious in hospital.

“But riding was a big part of my life then and I rode a horse called Sunlight for some of the big teams around then, such as the Gooch brothers – winning 75 ­championships.

“And many of those stories are in the Maitland Mercury.”