Cheryl Cole's great-grandmother has died.

Nora Tweedy - the grandmother of the singer's father Gary - died aged 90 from pneumonia in the early hours of Monday (09.07.12) morning.

Nora's family says she was very similar to her famous great-granddaughter and it is from her that Cheryl inherited her love of performing.

Nora's son John Tweedy said: "She loved to sing and dance. She used to perform upstairs in pubs in Wallsend and she would sing in the Duke of York pub.

"In many ways, she was an older version of Cheryl - music must run in the family. My mother's other love was Guinness. She drank Guinness virtually every day since I was born, right through until a few months before she died.

"My mum was such a character, just a lovely woman who loved everyone. She was very independent; she lived alone with help from me right up until she had a stroke."

However, John admitted Nora and Cheryl didn't see each other very often.

He added to the Newcastle Chronicle newspaper: "The whole family did get together for my mother's 80th, but Cheryl had just got into Girls Aloud and the first single was out, so she couldn't come, she was busy with that. She will know about my mother, though.

"We've met Cheryl a few times. I met her when she was very small, in a pram, but also a few times since she's older and been famous.

"She's a lovely girl. We saw her at an engagement party a few years back, she was there with all the Tweedys. We also see her dad Gary quite a lot."